


Roll Initiative

by Lionheart261



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Autistic Koda Koji, Autistic Midoriya Izuku, Bisexual Jirou Kyouka, Bisexual Kaminari Denki, Bisexual Uraraka Ochako, F/F, F/M, Fluff, IzuMina Week 2020, Jirou Kyouka Has Two Hands, Lesbian Asui Tsuyu, Lesbian Yaoyorozu Momo, Pansexual Ashido Mina, Polyamory, a dash of angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23338354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionheart261/pseuds/Lionheart261
Summary: Izumina Week 2020 Day 8: Free DayIzuku gets a rather interesting package, and Mina's determination to find out what it is leads her to discover his newest hobby: Dungeons and Dragons, recently updated into a somewhat revised edition. Izuku doubts that he'd make a very good dungeon master, or that any of his friends would even have the time or be interested in playing with him, so Mina concocts a bold plan: in just over 24 hours, she's going to get him a full party to run a game with, starting with herself. But can she find the time to grasp all of the game's rules and find enough people to play with them in so little time, or will this campaign end before it even had a chance to begin?
Relationships: Ashido Mina/Midoriya Izuku, Asui Tsuyu/Uraraka Ochako, Jirou Kyouka/Kaminari Denki, Jirou Kyouka/Yaoyorozu Momo, Kaminari Denki & Yaoyorozu Momo
Comments: 36
Kudos: 80





	1. Chapter 1

"Package for Midoriya Izuku?"

An elderly man with kind, yet piercing blue eyes who spoke in a slight Boston accent stood just inside the doors of the U.A. Heights Alliance dorm building. He smiled at the green haired boy who stood across from him, trembling a little from nervousness.

"Y-yeah, Mr. X-Ray," the boy in question replied in a small voice. The old man chuckled a little. This wasn't the first U.A. kid who addressed him by his old hero name, and he highly doubted it would be the last.

"Ah, c'mon, son, I've been retired for years. 'Mr. Keene' will do perfectly fine."

The boy nodded a couple times. "R-right, of course. Thank you, sir."

"Happy to help. Just need you to sign here," he said, prompting Midoriya to take the pen provided and sign his name on the paper Mr. Keene held out for him. "And that'll do it. Here ya go, kiddo."

Izuku took the package gingerly, as if he was afraid it would fall and break as soon as it was put into his hands. Given the sweat that was beginning to accumulate on his palms, that was a remote, yet noteworthy possibility. Mr. Keene, meanwhile, began to turn away, intent upon the other destinations he needed to deliver packages to. Before he left, however, he couldn't help but tease the polite hero-in-training just a little bit.

"You got good taste, Midoriya," he said, causing the boy to stand stock-still in an instant. "Have fun."

With that, he walked away, leaving Izuku muttering under his breath, trying to come up with a response.

"S-sure thing!" he eventually blurted out before facepalming. "'Sure thing,' what are you **doing** , Izuku?" he muttered before sighing and looking down at the package. He couldn't get mad at Mr. Keene for peeking inside; he couldn't turn off his Quirk, after all, and that very Quirk is exactly why he was hired to run the U.A. mail room. There were plenty of ways that a villain could attempt to harm the students and faculty through packages, and seeing any package coming in as if it was partially transparent was an incredibly effective security measure. Still, he could have refrained from commenting on what he had ordered, at least. Who knew who might be listening at that particular moment?

"Whatcha got there, Midori?"

Case in point.

Izuku scrambled to turn around as he heard Mina Ashido's voice inches behind him, stammering wildly as he did so. "I, uh, hey, Ashido!" he eventually managed. "W-what, what brings you here?"

Mina couldn't help but smirk a little. "You mean besides the fact that I live here?" she asked playfully, to which Izuku began to sweat a bit. He'd gotten better, but having girls be this close to him still set him off-balance. As he attempted to steady his nerves, she continued. "Well, at the moment, I'm wondering why exactly you tried to dodge my question."

Izuku felt himself sweating even more. "Ah. Hm. Well, uh, it's, you know, a package. That I got. Just now."

Mina's smirk grew a little wider. Izuku was incredibly easy to mess with. "I saw," she said simply. "What is it?"

"Nothing!" Izuku replied instantly, cursing himself as he did so. Everyone knows that when you insist something is nothing, it rarely turns out to be nothing.

"Oh? Then I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I opened it for you, would you?" As she spoke, a weak, sticky acid solution began to pool on her fingertips, one she knew from personal experience would be just strong enough to eat through the packaging without damaging the contents inside.

"T-that's a kind offer, but I can manage it just fine with the scissors in my room," Izuku said, already beginning to walk towards the elevator. Mina immediately fell into step alongside him.

"You sure? Your mitts are looking a little too sweaty for safe scissor usage, Midori," she pointed out, only making him sweat more. She couldn't help but giggle a bit at his reaction, causing him to turn to look at her just as he reached the elevator to the boys' wing.

"...Y-you're going to ask me about this package over and over again for days, aren't you?" he asked. He didn't know the pink girl too well, but he'd gotten to know her well enough.

"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to, silly," she replied in that same playful tone. Izuku let out a defeated sigh.

"C-can we go somewhere more private?" he asked, to which Mina nodded before smirking a bit.

"Your room, or mine?" she asked, causing Izuku to blush. He stammered out a response, which only made her more amused. "Midori, trust me, nobody cares. I've hung out with Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero in all of their rooms, and I haven't gotten in trouble yet."

Izuku managed to calm down enough to respond properly, albeit still stuttering a lot. "S-still, t-they made separate wings for a reason, didn't they? T-they wouldn't have done that arbitrarily."

Mina shrugged. "I guess, but I'm telling you right now, nothing bad is going to happen." After a couple seconds, she thought about it some more. "Well, knowing the creepy little grapefruit, if **he** hears about it...eh, you'll probably be fine."

Izuku gulped somewhat, a part of him wondering just what Mineta would do if he learned of this. He remembered vividly how he had reacted after the incident with the psychotic girl from the license exam. He learned that day never to underestimate the strength of his lecherous classmate's tiny fists.

"I-if it's really okay, then...I guess we can meet in my room," he said, still blushing a fair bit. Mina nodded, following behind him as he stepped into the elevator. Once the doors shut, he took a deep breath and provided an answer to Mina's question.

"This is...this is just some stuff for a super-old game I'm interested in playing, that's all."

This piqued Mina's interest. "Oh? What game is it?"

Izuku hesitated for a couple seconds before he replied. "It, uh, it's called Dungeons and Dragons. It's a tabletop roleplaying game from before Quirks existed. It was pretty popular back then, but once Quirks came around, it kinda stagnated and hadn't really been updated much."

Mina followed along, fascinated. "Whoa, seriously? Even after, like, what, two hundred years?" She knew that a lot of aspects of global society were put on pause by the emergence of Quirks, including all kinds of popular media, but it was still strange to think about.

Izuku nodded. "Yeah, uh, apparently a lot of companies kinda collapsed in the decades immediately after Quirks started popping up, including the one which published the game. Without them, no new official material was being made, so, you know, anyone still playing it had to either work with what content existed or make their own. As, uh, you can imagine, between that and real-life superheroes becoming a thing, the game's popularity took a pretty big hit."

Mina nodded. "Ah, gotcha," she said as the doors opened, prompting the two of them to begin walking out. "How'd you find out about it?"

"Well, I, uh, I stumbled on an article about it a couple months ago. Nobody owns the copyright anymore, so a couple of hardcore enthusiasts took every bit of official content they could find and came up with a new edition they called 5.5. The, uh, the previous one was 5th edition, so it's 5.5 because-"

"I gotcha, I gotcha," Mina said as the two of them came to Izuku's dorm room. He glanced at the door, then at Mina, then back at the door, his hesitation especially evident. Mina laughed a little to herself, causing Izuku to look at her questioningly. "I just find it funny, that's all," she said, which only left Izuku more confused.

"Find what funny?" he asked, a little defensively.

Mina laughed a little more. "You literally broke the law to go rescue Bakugo from the League of Villains, and yet you're worried about getting in trouble for bringing a cute girl into your dorm room. It's honestly kind of adorable."

Izuku found himself blushing profusely at Mina's remarks. As he struggled to form a coherent response, Mina sighed and crossed her arms, regarding him with a patient smile. He looked at Mina one last time, then finally opened the door, allowing her to walk in before he closed it behind them. Mina giggled to herself at all of the All Might merchandise lining every wall and bookshelf in the room, leaving Izuku feeling some residual embarrassment, even though everyone had already seen his room before.

"Y-you can sit in my desk chair if you-oh, you're...sitting on my bed. Okay, that, that's cool. That's fine, everything's fine."

Mina giggled some more. "If it really bothers you, I can move," she said kindly, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.

"No, no, it, uh, it's really fine. I just...I'm sorry, I honestly have no idea what to do here," he admitted rather sheepishly, sitting down next to her with the package in his hands.

"Have you seriously never had a girl alone in your room? Not even when you were little?" She kinda knew the answer to her question already, based on how Izuku acted around her and all the other girls he knew, but she felt like she should ask anyway.

Izuku nodded. "I...I haven't really had **anyone** alone in my room before," he said, remembering the story that he had told everyone else about his Quirk. "I was already a weird kid who got bullied a lot, but since my Quirk emerged late, everyone thought I was Quirkless. Between those two things...the people at this school have pretty much been the only friends I've ever had. Or, at least, the only ones who haven't started bullying me yet."

For once, Mina wasn't entirely sure what to say, and the two sat in silence for several seconds. Upon looking at the package, however, she got an idea. "You mind if I open this up?" she asked, gesturing towards it. Izuku nodded, handing it off to her as he became lost in thought. In no time, Mina's weak acid solution ate through the bindings on the box, allowing her to open it up and reveal a smaller box with, rather fittingly, a fierce red dragon on the lid. After lifting that up, she began to look through the various contents of the box, including a set of curious looking dice and a rulebook which rivaled the size of their own textbooks. "How, uh, how do you play this game, exactly?" Mina asked, finding herself intimidated by all the words and tables on the pages as she flipped through them.

Izuku brought his mind back to the present in order to answer her question. "Well, uh, like I said, it's a roleplaying game, so you make a character that's a certain class and a certain race, and you have different stats that determine, uh, how hard you can hit with your weapons, or how many hit points you have, how smart you are, and some other stuff. The game's usually played in a group, with one player acting as the 'dungeon master' who plans out and manages all the stuff that the other players will do. It, uh, it's a lot for a person to wrap their head around at first." Izuku paused for a moment. "To be honest, that's partly why I was kinda hesitant to talk about it."

Mina nodded along, still flipping through the rulebook. "Does it have to be a group?" she asked.

"No, it can work as a solo adventure between one player and the dungeon master. It's just...well, the game's mechanics are largely balanced around players being in a group of four to five, although you could potentially have more. I couldn't imagine running a game of more than maybe six players, though. That'd be a **lot**."

Mina nodded. "I gotcha. Well, why not ask the Midorisquad if they'd like to play?"

Izuku cocked his head. "...The Midorisquad?" he asked, making sure he'd heard her right. To his surprise, she actually blushed a bit, her cheeks turning lilac.

"Uh, y-yeah. You know, uh, you, Ochaco, Iida, Todoroki, Tsu. They're always hanging out with you. So...they're the Midorisquad! Yeah!" By the end of it, Mina looked like she wanted to die. Izuku simply nodded slowly, not quite sure what to make of Mina's invention, while Mina looked down bashfully. "Ochaco liked it," she muttered. Izuku decided to get back on track.

"Well, I was going to ask them when I first ordered that starter set. As I was waiting for it, I thought things over some more, and...for one thing, I'm not sure I'd be a very good dungeon master. I'm still wrapping my head around some of the rules, and I'm not the best at acting or improvising dialogue or anything like that. Plus, I figured that everyone would be way too busy. This game is a pretty big time commitment, after all. Sessions tend to go on for hours, so...yeah."

Izuku looked down at his shoes for a bit, while Mina looked at him sympathetically. She was already working out a scheme in her head, and idly glanced at the All Might Silver Age calendar placed onto the wall by Izuku's desk. It was Thursday currently, and from the looks of things, Izuku had the whole rest of the week free. With this information in mind, she began to enact her plan.

"I'm free tomorrow night," she said, catching Izuku's attention. He began to blush slightly as he looked into her eyes, then promptly looked away.

"Ah, uh, well...t-the adventure this starter set comes with has suggestions for running the game with only one player, so I can look over that and figure out how to run it from there. We'll probably need a fair amount of space, so the dorm rooms wouldn't really work. We, uh, we can meet in the common area, provided that, you know, nobody's using it. Say, uh, starting at 6? Maybe going until 9 or 10?"

Mina nodded. "Sure, sounds great!" she said, legitimately starting to get a little excited. She easily hoisted herself off of the bed and onto her feet. As she began to move towards the door, Izuku interjected.

"Uh, Ashido, did you want to go over everything you'll need for making a character first? I've got the time, I could explain all of it to you before we get started."

Mina shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, Midori, but I've got some homework I've been severely procrastinating on. You should probably focus on that too. You have my number, though, yeah?" Izuku blushed a bit before nodding. "I'll let you know if I need any help."

Izuku nodded again. "Got it. You, uh, you should probably take one of these, though," he said, pulling out one of the character sheet packages that came with the starter set. "I don't know if you have access to a printer or anything, so..."

Mina's eyes widened slightly as she looked at all the various boxes for things she needed to note down. Ability scores, saving throws, skills, armor class, hit points, features, equipment...there were a **lot** of boxes. Still, she took the character sheet with a simple, yet genuine "Thanks."

Izuku nodded, not quite sure what to say. "Well, um...I-I'll see you tomorrow!" he eventually got out, speaking a little too quickly. Mina chuckled.

"See you tomorrow," she replied back before letting herself out, leaving Izuku to process what had just transpired. He could overhear her giggling as she walked away, and for some reason that made him feel...really warm and fuzzy. Before he could ponder just what **that** meant, however, he swiftly began to feel something else as he heard a pair of small, yet incredibly determined fists banging on his door.

"MIDORIYA!" Mineta screamed through the door at the top of his lungs, his sheer fury extremely evident and drawing the attention of everyone else on that floor. Izuku's blood ran cold as he contemplated Mina's words earlier, wondering just what Mineta was prepared to do before hesitatingly opening the door.

This, as Izuku would come to realize, was an ill-calculated, grievous mistake.

* * *

With barely over a day to prepare, Mina set to work immediately on the next stages of her brilliant plan. The first step, of course, was reading up on the basics of the game online as soon as she was done with her homework. She didn't need to understand everything, but she wanted to be able to make her character and manage the rest of the plan on her own. To her surprise, despite how complicated it looked on the surface, the game was actually easier to wrap her head around than she was expecting. She was especially relieved to find that there was much less complicated math at the heart of the game than she had feared, which would have doomed an otherwise doable plan. Thus, with the help of a good deal of research and some online tools, by the end of that Thursday Izuku's game had a party of one player ready and raring to go.

As it turned out, however, getting more would actually be the hard part.

It was already far too late to go knock on everyone's doors by the time Mina's character was done, so after texting Izuku everything she had about her character, she resolved to text some of their classmates in an effort to scoop up more players. When she awoke the next morning to check on those texts, however, the results were disappointing. As Izuku had predicted, none of the "Midorisquad" could make it: Ochaco and Tsuyu were going on a date at 6:30, Iida had resolved to spend that night studying for their upcoming English test, and Todoroki was busy with his remedial courses. She had texted a couple other people she knew Midoriya was well acquainted with, but that came up empty too. Tokoyami wasn't interested, Kirishima was planning to hang out at the gym with Bakugo, and Aoyama had a popular American tv show he always watched at 7 on Fridays. Thus, her only option was to turn to her own circle of friends. This, however, came with its own pitfalls, as Mina found out a couple hours after she woke up.

 _Toru: Are you_ sure _you want me there? Wouldn't you prefer, what was it, a "solo adventure?" ;)_

Mina groaned as she read her best friend's text. Not a day went by where she didn't regret sharing **that** particular secret with her. She knew Toru would never tell anyone else, obviously, but by God, would she tease Mina about it at every possible opportunity when it was just the two of them.

_Mina: No, Toru, jeez._

_Toru: You sure?_

_Mina: Yes!_

_Toru: But are you_ sure?

_Mina: ...Okay, fine, maybe a little. :/_

_Toru: Ha! Knew it!_

_Mina: But seriously, he said the game's more fun with a group of people, and I want him to have as much fun as possible!_

_Mina: Just, please come. For me? I promise, I'll do whatever you want._

_Toru: Aw, come on, you don't gotta ask. I'm always willing to help a friend find love~._

_Toru: Although...now that you mention it-_

_Mina: Todoroki can't make it, Toru._

_Toru: Drat._

_Toru: I'll still go, though, dw._

_Mina: Thanks, lol._

_Mina: We should probably meet up somewhere to get your character sheet ready. You good to meet at one of the tables outside the cafeteria after classes are done?_

_Toru: Yeah, that works. See you later!_

Mina sighed. It had been awkward, but she had managed to get an additional party member. Whenever she had the chance over the course of that school day, she worked to get the rest that she needed, which quickly became much easier than it had been before.

* * *

_Kaminari: 6 tonight, huh? Yeah, I can make that. It sounds like it'll be fun!_

_Mina: Great! We're meeting outside the cafeteria after classes let out so you guys can make your characters._

_Mina: Don't let Midori know you're playing yet-I want it to be a surprise. :)_

_Kaminari: Cool. I'll be there._

_Mina: Also, could you maybe bring snacks to the actual game? I was going to get some, but alas, I am broke._

_Kaminari: Lol. Don't worry, girl, I got you._

_Mina: Tysm!_

* * *

_Momo: Oh, that sounds like great fun! I'd love to join, if you'll have me._

_Mina: Awesome! We'll be meeting after class outside the cafeteria so everyone can make their characters._

_Momo: Understood._

_Mina: Oh, actually, if it isn't too much trouble, can I ask a favor?_

_Momo: You need materials for everyone else who's showing up._

_Mina: ...Yeah. ={_

_Momo: Say no more. I'm happy to be of service._

_Mina: Thanks, Momoyao! =_ ]

_Momo: Don't mention it. I shall see you in a few hours._

* * *

_Jirou: A roleplaying game, huh? Didn't think high fantasy was your style._

_Mina: Ah, well, sometimes you gotta branch out, you know? Try new things._

_Jirou: Yeah, I hear you. I dunno, it sounds like it might be fun, but I was planning to study for English tonight. Haven't been doing too hot there recently._

_Mina: You sure? I happen to have it on good authority that both Kaminari_ and _Momo will be there. I imagine they'd be very happy to have you playing with them._

_Jirou: ..._

_Mina: =_ ]

_Jirou: ..._

_Jirou: You know what, screw you._

_Mina: Love ya too, Yo-Yo!_

_Jirou: That nickname makes no goddamn sense._

_Mina: Aw, admit it, Kyoka, it's growing on you._

_Jirou: I hope your character gets mauled by goblins._

_Mina: We'll have to find out at 6, won't we?_

_Mina: =_ }

_Jirou: ..._

_Jirou: Ugh, alright, I'll go, so long as we never speak of this again._

_Mina: Deal, lol._

_Jirou: Seriously, Mina, if you tell anyone I like those two, they'll never find your body. Got it?_

_Mina: Message received loud and clear, Yo Yo._

_Jirou: You can be a real pain sometimes, you know that?_

_Mina: Yup!_

_Mina: We're meeting up after class to make characters beforehand. See you then!_

_Jirou: Yeah, yeah, whatever._

* * *

By the time classes were finally done with, the party made their way to a moderately sized outdoor table right outside of the cafeteria, each of them making sure to disguise the true purpose of their gathering as much as they could. When they finally met up at the table, they allowed the pretense to drop, satisfied that Izuku wouldn't catch wind of their meeting prematurely.

"Hey, Jirou, glad you could make it!" Kaminari said, smiling his almost literal thousand watt smile. Momo smiled along with him, the combined effect of which left Jirou a blushing mess. Of course it was just her luck to be crushing hard on not one, but **two** adorable dorks.

"I-it's whatever," she said, trying to play it cool and failing miserably. "Didn't have anything better to do, so I figured, why not, you know?" As the punk rocker sat down in between Kaminari and Momo, Mina glanced at her with a subdued smirk. She knew that if Jirou could have flipped her off without drawing suspicion, she would have.

"So! We've only got about...say, Toru, what time is it?"

"3:15."

"Two hours and forty-five minutes to get you guys ready to go for Midori's game!"

The group nodded with some slight apprehension, not entirely sure whether they could manage such a feat.

"Uh, this isn't going to take that long, is it?" Kaminari asked, speaking for the group. Mina responded promptly.

"Don't worry, I've got y'all covered!" She immediately sent out a group text she had prepared in advance, with a link to a website she found which listed all of the official class and race options a player could choose from for this particular edition. As the others flipped through the available options, Kaminari let out a low whistle.

"Man, there's a lot of stuff here. You know the gist of all of this?"

Mina nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! I mostly just read up on the basics, but I know enough to help y'all get through making your characters in no time! Just let me know if you need any help."

Momo nodded in approval at Mina's diligence before turning to look at the pink haired girl. "If you don't mind, Mina, could you show me what I have to work with?"

"Oh! Oh, yeah, sure!" she said, promptly showing her a picture of the standard set of dice the game used, as well as handing over her own character sheet for examination. After looking it over for a moment, Momo nodded.

"Should be simple enough," she said as she rolled up her sleeve and held her right arm straight out. In a matter of seconds, the skin on her arm glowed with a pinkish light, and enough blank character sheets, already stapled together as necessary, emerged from her arm as if it were a printer spitting out copies. The sheets flopped down onto the table, followed by several different colored sets of polyhedral dice. The group watched in awe at Momo's handiwork for a moment before selecting what they needed. To no one's surprise, Mina took the pink dice set, holding up the six-sided die for the others' inspection.

"Alright, now, as soon as you guys have settled on a character, these are gonna become real important. There's a couple different ways you can figure out your characters' stats, and one of them is by rolling one of these four times and-"

"Um, e-excuse me? Ashido?"

A small, timid voice which Mina and the others instantly recognized could be heard coming from right behind her. Just as she turned around to look for the source, Jirou's expression, still somewhat embarrassed from earlier, immediately perked up into a smile.

"Oh, hey, Koda! You made it!" she said as everyone else turned to look at him. With the spotlight on him, he immediately clammed up, smiling nervously as he waved at everyone. Mina turned to look at Jirou, who simply shrugged. "We got to talking about the game at lunch, and he was really interested, so I suggested that he ask to join the group after classes. Is that cool with y'all?"

Each member of the group voiced their agreement almost immediately, catching Koda a little by surprise. "A-are you sure? I-I don't want to impose," he whispered to Mina, who happened to be closest.

"Don't worry, dude, we got room. Pull up a chair!" she replied, prompting the animal whisperer to smile brightly before sitting next to Momo, not wanting to be too far from Jirou.

"You're in luck, I made a couple of extras just in case," Momo remarked, handing the timid boy a character sheet and gesturing towards a couple leftover sets of dice. He quickly snatched the set he wanted before looking up at Mina expectantly, catching Momo's attention. "Now, then, you mentioned something about rolling dice? To determine our characters' stats?"

Mina nodded, eager to keep things moving and diving headfirst into her explanations.

"Yeah! You take one of the six-sided dice and you roll it four times, then take out the lowest roll and add the rest together. You've got six stats to worry about, so you're gonna do that whole thing six times and write down what you get. Of course, there's also this other method people use called 'point-buy,' where each stat starts at 8 and you can add to them from, like, a certain amount of points or something. I went with that because it seemed easier, less math involved, but it's up to you. Whichever one you end up using, you gotta keep in mind that, depending on the class, some stats will be super useful and others won't. The race that you pick also gives bonuses to certain stats, which might help you out, although you can choose whatever you want. Like, for example, when I was making my character, I knew that Strength really wasn't gonna help much, but Charisma was super important, and she gets a plus two bonus to that, so that ended up helping a lot..."

As Mina continued to explain everything she knew, the others listened intently to varying degrees, all of them ready to complete the task ahead of them.

* * *

About five minutes shy of 6 pm, Izuku scrambled out of his dorm room with his Dungeons and Dragons set in tow. He could practically feel Mineta's furious stare through the peephole of the small boy's door, and he knew that his neighbor hadn't yet forgiven him for his "betrayal." He also knew that if looks could kill, he would no doubt be erased from existence without a trace.

Nevertheless, he pressed on, making it to the elevator and sitting there alone for a moment, a hundred minor worries beginning to occupy his mind. What if he stuttered? What if he went on talking for too long, or if he didn't say enough? Would Mina remain interested the whole time, or would she start to check out? He'd re-balanced everything properly, hadn't he? Her character was a bard, so he knew she'd be a bit light on health and defenses. She wasn't going to get stuck or run into too much trouble with the enemies, right? Or, hell, what if he'd made everything too easy trying to compensate for that? Maybe if he double checked everything fast enough, he could-

The elevator doors opened, prompting a familiar voice to call out to him from the common area's couch as she spotted him arriving. Izuku gulped, his palms already beginning to sweat a bit. This was it.

"H-hey, Ashido, are you ready to-?" he began, walking out of the elevator before pausing to fully register the scene before him: Mina, Kaminari, Momo, Jirou, Toru, and Koda, all sitting around the common area's coffee table, armed with dice, pencils, character sheets, and plenty of sugary snacks and drinks to go around. For a good couple seconds, he didn't know how to respond, eventually just asking, "W-what's going on? What are you all doing here?" The answer seemed obvious, but for some reason he was having trouble making that connection in the moment.

Momo smiled, gesturing to the materials laid out on the desk. "Is it not obvious?" she asked simply. Before Izuku could answer that question, Mina cut in.

"Surprise!" she said enthusiastically. "Party of six, ready to roll!"

Izuku blinked a couple times, still not quite believing it, while Kaminari and Toru laughed at Mina's unintentional pun. Jirou groaned. Based on what Mina had told them of her character, she knew that these kinds of puns would be frequent.

"Y-you got a whole group together for me?" Izuku asked, causing Mina to blush slightly.

"I-it was kind of last minute," she admitted sheepishly as she tried to hide her face. Toru simply shot her a smug glance while Kaminari interjected strongly.

"'Kind of' last minute? I finished my character sheet like half an hour ago!"

Jirou scoffed, smiling a bit as she did so. "You would've finished it sooner if you hadn't spent fifteen minutes trying to pick out your spells."

"Hey, that stuff was more complicated than I thought, okay?"

Jirou chuckled. "I had, like, twice as many spells to pick as you did, and I still finished my character faster."

"Now, now, you two, it's not a competition," Momo interrupted. "The point is, we all have our characters ready to play for Midoriya's game."

Kaminari scoffed himself, a bemused smirk crossing his features. "Says the girl who had her sheet done before Mina even finished explaining everything," he said, causing Jirou to laugh in spite of herself, while Momo simply chuckled.

"Yes, well, the point still stands," she said with a slight smile. Jirou returned her friend's smile, becoming lost in her eyes for a moment before remembering something.

"Oh, Midoriya, you mind if I ask a question real quick?" she asked, turning to look at Izuku before pausing. "Uh..." she began, prompting everyone else to look towards where she was looking. "You good, dude?"

"Hm?" Izuku asked absentmindedly, only noticing the tears beginning to pool in his eyes when Jirou pointed them out. He quickly blinked them away and tried to get his head back into the game. "Uh, yeah, yeah. I-I'm fine. Ask away, Jirou." He and the others failed to notice Mina looking at him with an affectionate smile, with the obvious exception of Toru.

Jirou slowly nodded, content to let him be for the moment. "Okay...well, my spells all say they have verbal components. It doesn't matter what those are, right? Just that you say something to make the spell work?"

"Uh, from what I understand, yes."

"Cool. Then my idea works," she said, causing Izuku to raise an eyebrow and chuckle slightly.

"Well. Color me intrigued," he said, before his thoughts returned to the new task he was presented with, and he began to busy himself with unpacking after pulling up a chair. "I'm gonna need a couple minutes to, uh, set up my stuff. While I'm doing that...why don't you guys introduce your characters? You don't have to say much, just, like, their name, pronouns, class, race, other basic things. I mean, Mina already sent me everything about her character, and I'm assuming you all know each other's, but it'll be helpful for me to know. Plus, uh, it'd be a good idea to figure out how you guys will actually, uh, play your characters throughout the game. Like, how they'll talk, what their personality is like, that sort of thing." As he spoke, he set down the screen which came with the starter set, making sure his materials were hidden from all the other players. "Whoever wants to go first can go."

Mina giggled and cleared her throat before launching into her introduction, speaking in the most hyper, excitable tone she could muster. "Hi, everyone! My name's Joy, she/her/hers. Don't have a surname, I'm afraid, but Joy will do just fine! I'm a pink Tiefling Bard with a rather devilish tongue and some pretty sick moves, if I do say so myself! I also love puns, and I'm always eager to hear new ones from whoever I talk to! I have a particular talent in cracking jokes or, if necessary, cracking skulls! I gotta admit, I can get distracted pretty easily, but I always try to do the right thing. My motto is to always leave something better than when you found it. I'm super excited to go on an epic quest with you all!"

Throughout her entire introduction, Mina got up several times, making extremely elaborate hand gestures as she went and occupying everyone's attention. Jirou mostly just groaned while the others smiled and laughed at Mina's antics. As Izuku listened alongside getting his stuff ready, he couldn't help but notice that weird warm and fuzzy feeling again. Where did that keep coming from?

"Well, I guess I'll go next!" Toru said cheerfully, getting up from her position in between Mina and Izuku and clearing her throat. When she spoke next, it was in a much deeper, harsher tone of voice, one that immediately caught everyone off guard. "My name is Scratch, she/her/hers. I'm a Tabaxi Rogue, a skilled Thief who's a master at striking from the shadows and remaining unnoticed. I take what I want with no one the wiser. I'm fairly chill most of the time, but if you want to keep your stuff on your person and your eyes in working order, do yourself a favor and don't piss me off."

The other party members blinked a couple times, taken aback by Toru's choice of character.

"Oookay, then..." Kaminari began, slightly intimidated before he shifted into a confident, laid-back voice. "Well, my name is Farai, but you can just call me Rai, he/him/his. I'm a variant Human Storm Sorcerer, who used to be a sailor until I got caught in this vicious thunderstorm and woke up with magical powers. Now I'm just kinda wandering around, trying and, honestly, struggling a lot to figure out how all this magic stuff works. But hey, if I manage to pick up a fair amount of money during my travels, that'll definitely be nice."

The girls in the group chuckled as Kaminari finished his introduction. "Of course you go for the confident tough guy," Jirou remarked teasingly, causing Kaminari to scoff in irritation.

"Oh, yeah? Let's see what you come up with," he replied, immediately prompting Jirou to clear her throat.

"Gladly," she answered in a refined tone of voice, one which caused both Kaminari and Momo to blush slightly before looking away, while she carried on unaware. "My name is Alision Norwynn, they/them/theirs. For the sake of ease of communication, I tend to just go by Alis, pronounced like 'Alice.' I'm a High Elf Wizard of the School of Enchantment. My family specializes in a unique method of spellcasting involving the use of vocals, and I have likewise been trained in that craft."

Izuku nodded, having mostly completed his preparations. "Ah, so that's what you were asking about," he muttered, which Jirou overheard.

"I would have picked a bard too, but Mina already made hers and I didn't want to double up," Jirou explained in her normal voice before getting back into character. "Anyway! I have ventured from my family's ancestral home to explore the world and expand my magical knowledge. Along the way...I happened to make something of a friend."

As Jirou spoke, she turned to look at Koda, who began whispering in a volume far too low for anyone without Jirou's enhanced hearing to register. She nodded, and relayed what she had been told, remaining in character. "Whisper, he/him/his, is a Kenku Druid associated with the Circle of the Shepherd. He is quite young and wishes to hear more Common words in order to mimic them, and thus be able to fully converse in Common. I have endeavored to help him with this in exchange for him acting as my escort and sharing what magical knowledge he possesses with me. In the interim, I am able to translate for him through my working knowledge of his native language, Auran. By my estimation, he's incredibly earnest, polite, and, as you can imagine, loves animals. I imagine he will be a most dependable companion."

"Dawww!" Mina and Toru said simultaneously, placing their hands on their cheeks. Koda immediately became embarrassed and slightly fidgety, but a look from Jirou managed to calm him down. Momo smiled at the animal whisperer before clearing her throat and attempting to get into character.

"Well, then, let's get this over with," she began in a gruff, no-nonsense tone which caused Kaminari and Jirou to immediately burst into laughter, laughter which quickly became contagious as everyone else couldn't refrain from lightly chuckling along. "What is it? Am I doing something wrong?" Momo asked in her normal voice, somewhat worried and caught off guard by the group's response. Izuku took a second to compose himself before replying.

"Well, um, at least for me, it...it wasn't quite what I was expecting," he admitted before immediately adding, "Which is good! That's good, you guys should, you know, be trying to branch out from what others might expect based on your personality. I think you've been doing a decent job of that so far." He glanced towards Kaminari and Jirou with a more stern gaze than he would have given under normal circumstances, prompting them to work to calm down. "Please. Continue," he said encouragingly.

After taking a couple seconds to reassemble her thoughts, Momo resumed her introduction in the same tone of voice as before. "My name is Rona Querinas, she/her/hers. I'm a Goliath Fighter, having been trained as a Battle Master. I've mostly been traveling around from town to town, taking care of local problems so I can get enough coin to deal with my own. I tend to keep to myself most of the time: other people are often more trouble than they're worth. Still, I'm not above having company in my travels. Occasionally."

As soon as Momo had finished, Kaminari and Jirou couldn't stop themselves from snickering ever so slightly.

"Oh, man, that voice was **amazing** ," Kaminari said earnestly, to which Jirou nodded. Momo found herself blushing a tiny bit.

"Well, I am, um, relieved to know that your amusement was not malicious in nature," she said, to which their expressions immediately became serious.

"Dude, of course it wasn't."

"Yeah, Momo, you know how much I lo-like...you. Yeah," Jirou said, beginning to sweat a bit as Kaminari tried his hardest not to laugh. Momo, completely oblivious, simply smiled.

"The feeling is mutual," she said, leaving Jirou on the verge of a heart attack while Kaminari's task got even more difficult. Mina likewise had to refrain from reacting too strongly, which Toru couldn't help but notice. Koda, hearing everything that was going on, summoned the courage to speak.

"U-um, are we, uh, gonna start, ah, playing now?" he asked, just loud enough to catch everyone else's attention. Before anyone could say anything else, Izuku nodded, taking control of the situation.

"Yes! Yes, of course, let's, um...let's get started," he said, taking a deep breath as his friends at the table all found themselves leaning closer to listen. He looked at the text of the module, turning around what to say and what not to say before resolving to just go for it. "I-it's a busy night at the Wanderer's Reprieve, a tavern set up, uh, largely in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but a dense forest bordering it on one side and the intersection of...yes, three different dirt roads passing right in front of it. The owner of the tavern, a standoffish, yet, eh, fairly reasonable Dwarven woman named Reina Coldaxe, is busy at the bar, uh, cleaning empty glasses. Each of you came into this tavern for the same reason as everyone else does: to rest, relax, and prepare for the next leg of your respective journeys. As, uh, as the light level in the bar begins to fade with the coming of dusk, most of the patrons return to their rooms to sleep." Izuku paused as he looked across at all of the players. "What do you do?"

Mina immediately brought her hands together with a determined expression. "Okay, so, is there, like, a stage to perform on?"

Izuku thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I'll say there's a small stage, about big enough for a small quartet to play on. It's kind of, uh, nestled in a corner of the room."

"Sweet. Okay, so, the whole time everyone's been in this tavern, I'm gonna say that Joy's been doing a comedy routine built around a whole bunch of random puns she picked up from people on the road."

"Oh, no," Jirou remarked with genuine fear, while Izuku thought it over for a moment.

"Make me a Performance check," he said, prompting Mina to roll and stare down intensely at the twenty-sided die before glancing at her sheet.

"11, so that would be, uh...16!" she confirmed, positively beaming at getting such a good roll to start with.

Izuku nodded. "Uh, over the hour or two that you all have been in here, your routine attracts a good amount of attention, with almost every ordinary patron who hears it stopping to tip you before they leave. You've earned a total of...I'll say about 5 silver pieces, from tips."

"Woo hoo! Awesome!" she said, her enthusiasm as she updated her sheet distracting Izuku for a second with that same fuzzy feeling.

"Uh, how do you all react to Joy's performance?" he asked, eager to keep things moving.

Kaminari shrugged. "Eh, Rai would find a couple of her jokes funny, I figure. He'll toss in a silver piece for her trouble. Maybe with, like, a little electrical spark or something on the coin, just for flair?"

Toru chuckled. "Scratch finds it funny, but you can tell from her face that she won't admit it if you point it out to her."

Koda whispered in Jirou's direction, prompting her to turn towards Izuku. "Whisper asks Alis if they get any of it, but they just shake their head. It's all rather confusing."

Momo scoffed, getting into her Rona voice. "'This woman needs to find better material,' Rona says, looking at the pink Tiefling with contempt."

"'Yes, that is a rather astute observation.'"

Momo chuckled. "Rona turns in the direction of the voice and says, 'You talking to me?'"

Jirou gulped both in and out of character before replying. "'Why, yes. Is that agreeable to you, miss?'"

"Rona smirks as she takes stock of this, comparatively speaking, much smaller High Elf. 'Not usually...but I'm thinking I might make an exception tonight.'"

"Listening to this conversation, Rai's just gonna be like," Kaminari began before wolf-whistling loudly, causing Momo to laugh a little while Jirou became red in the face.

"Alis casts Mage Hand and positions it so that it's clamped right over that dumb idiot's mouth," Jirou said, stewing in her embarrassment. Izuku chuckled along with the rest of the group.

"Uh, make me a ranged spell attack to, you know, see if you get it in the right position."

"Oh, crap, my AC sucks, hold on," Kaminari said, checking his sheet as Jirou rolled and let out a triumphant laugh.

"17, you jerk!" she proclaimed, to which Kaminari sighed defeatedly.

"Yeah, that hits," he said, leaving the party chuckling as Izuku ruled what would happen next.

"Out of nowhere, this, uh, spectral hand kind of appears right in front of your face and just clamps onto your mouth, refusing to let go and muffling anything you try to say."

"Rai kinda sits back down, he's not even gonna fight it. The point's been made," Kaminari remarked as he leaned back in his chair.

"Joy just giggles at this whole situation. These people look like fun, so she's gonna jump down from the stage and go see what they're doing."

"Scratch is also amused, and kinda turns her head a bit to see what's going on."

"Rona will say 'Ha! Nice.'"

"Joy walks up to Rona and immediately holds out her hand. 'Hey, there! My name's Joy!'"

"...Rona just kinda looks at her outstretched hand for a moment before taking it. 'Rona.'"

"'Alision, but I go by Alis,' Alis says, not wanting to take the handshake. They gesture to Whisper and introduce him as well."

"Joy just kinda nods. 'Well, it sure is nice to meet all of you! What'd you think of my show?'"

The group looked at each other for a moment before replying.

"Scratch just kinda shrugs, but you notice she's a little embarrassed about it."

"Rai nods and gives a thumbs up, not bothering to speak."

"Rona shrugs as well. 'I've heard better.'"

"...Joy's shoulders kinda slump a bit, and she's just like, 'Oh. Huh.'"

At this point, Izuku decided that now was as good a time as any to move things along.

"Uh, before you have much time to dwell on that, Joy, all of you kind of instinctively turn around as something big comes from the outside and slams open the door, sending it flying back on its hinges as a large humanoid enters the tavern. Coldaxe kind of stops what she's doing as the creature, a tall, shambling thing covered in moss, stares you all down with these unnaturally dead white eyes. It looks at you all and just kinda starts growling in a low tone." As he spoke, he attempted to produce an approximation of what he was thinking, a gurgling sound which made everyone instinctively inch away from the screen, imagining the creature before them. "It seems to have rather hostile intentions towards you. What do you do?"

In a matter of seconds, the group had marshaled their responses.

"Joy does a quick two-step as she pulls out a pink ribbon and gets ready to cast some spells!"

"Scratch kinda keeps a hand on her shortsword, more than willing to use it if need be."

"Rai tears off the Mage Hand from his face, and tiny bolts of electricity begin to charge up in his hands."

"Rona gets up off the table and pulls out her longsword, ready to cut this thing to ribbons."

"Alis has their spellbook in one hand and their stave in the other, ready for battle. Whisper likewise readies his own druidic focus along with his quarterstaff."

Izuku nodded as each of the players stood at the ready. "Okay, uh, the creature sees all of your weapons, and immediately the moss on its body, uh, kind of grows to cover up an even greater portion of it, like some kind of armor. It rears back its head and roars, in a really, like, guttural way, as it charges you all. Now..." Izuku took a deep breath. Here was the moment of truth. The chance to see if he could really do this. It was now or never. With one last second of hesitation, he said the most infamous words in the game's long and storied history:

"I need you all to roll initiative."

* * *

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed reading this story. I had been itching to write some kind of fanfic about the MHA cast playing Dungeons and Dragons for a while, and I knew that Izumina Week 2020 was coming up, so I took advantage of the Free Day prompt right at the tail end and whipped this up over a couple of days. It was honestly a blast to try and come up with each character's character, as well as some of the differences of this new edition. I'm really tempted to write a whole series around this, but I've already got a whole bunch of other fics that I should probably focus on. Still, I hope you guys liked what I've written so far, and let me know what you think in the comments! Until then, thank you all for reading, have yourselves a fantastic day, and take care. Happy Izumina Week!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the session progresses, the party has been having a lot of fun, and Izuku is starting to get more comfortable DMing. However, after the session ends, all of the players will find themselves facing other challenges, challenges which may be more daunting and difficult than the enemies they were vanquishing.

It was late at night, later than any of the players assembled had been expecting to continue playing, when the debut session of Izuku’s campaign reached its climax. After vanquishing the mysterious moss creature, the party realized that it was actually a traveler who had left the Wanderer’s Reprieve several days before, having ventured off into the nearby forest. The tavern’s owner, Reina Coldaxe, offered the group a modest sum of gold to find out what had happened to turn the traveler into this violent creature, and to prevent any others from causing trouble to her establishment. This quest given out, the group followed the path that the traveler had taken, fighting off several more creatures like them and engaging in some light banter along the way. Eventually, however, they tracked the problem to the source: a large, monstrous tree covered in the same moss as the former travelers, that appeared to have been infected and corrupted by some malevolent force. Unable to defend itself, the corrupted tree instead acted through several other infected travelers, as well as a dryad who was evidently bonded to that particular tree. Unfortunately for the party, these defenses were proving difficult to break through.

“Come on, man, you can do it!” Kaminari said encouragingly.

“‘You got this, Whisper, I believe in you!’ And Joy is gonna give him bardic inspiration with her bonus action.”

Koda began to fidget under the mounting pressure, while Jirou moved to calm him down. Izuku, meanwhile, nodded thoughtfully. 

“Alright, Ashido, is that your turn?” he asked, to which she nodded. “Okay, Whisper’s up. What are you doing, Koda?”

Jirou turned to look at Koda, expecting him to whisper what he was going to do as he had done throughout the entire session. To her surprise, however, he actually turned towards Izuku, speaking directly to him in as loud a voice as he was willing to muster under the circumstances.

“H-how many of them are, ah, still standing, again? A-and, uh, how’s everyone else?” he asked, trying his best to hide the anxiety in his voice. As everyone else was left slightly surprised by Koda speaking up, Izuku responded without missing a beat.

“Well, Rona and Alis each took out one of the moss monsters, and Rai and Joy just finished off another. Scratch has been fighting the dryad in front of the tree, while Rona’s stuck fighting the last moss monster not too far away. Rai and Joy are okay. Rona and Scratch are looking pretty rough, but they’re still standing. Alis is unconscious.” After taking a couple seconds to let Koda think, he asked, “What’s Whisper planning?”

Koda sat there for a moment, muttering to himself and looking over his character sheet carefully before he eventually decided on a course of action.

“O-okay, so, with my bonus action, I’ll, uh, put down a bear totem. It’s a 30 foot radius, and it gives, ah, temporary health equal to, eh, twice my level to anyone I want inside the circle when it appears. So, if I put it down in, uh, the center of the clearing, I can give it to myself and everyone else, right?”

Izuku thought it over for a moment before nodding. “Yup, based on where everyone is, that works.”

“Cool,” Koda said, as everyone else noted down the extra two hit points they received, at least temporarily. “S-so, then, I’m going to cast Faerie Fire around where all the fighting is going on. It’s, uh, a 20 foot cube, so, Rona, the tree, the dryad, Scratch, and the moss monster, t-they, uh, all need to make dexterity saves. Ah, D-dC 13.” Koda fell silent as Izuku, Momo, and Toru rolled, thankful for a chance to stop speaking for a bit.

“I’m good!” Toru confirmed just as Momo breathed a sigh of relief.

“I am fine as well, thankfully. I wasn’t expecting to be with a negative modifier, let me tell you,” she said, chuckling slightly.

Izuku’s eyes widened as he looked at the results behind the security of the DM screen. “Alright then, all the enemies failed the save,” he said, to which the group leaned in expectantly, wondering just what Koda’s spell had done. Koda himself took a deep breath, composing himself before he continued speaking.

“A-alright, so, they all start glowing with, uh, with a deep blue light, and, ah, any attack roll made against them has advantage now, s-so long as I can keep concentrating. I-I’m just gonna move back towards where Joy and Rai are now. That’s all.”

“Okay then,” Izuku said, while the rest of the party extended their thanks to Koda for the temporary hit points and his helpful spell. “Scratch, you’re up.”

Toru began to giggle in a manner that was at once maniacal, yet also strangely endearing. “Ohoho, thanks a lot, Koda,” she said with genuine appreciation in her voice. “Now it’s time for death! By! Sneak Attack!” As she let out her unconventional battle cry, she proceeded to roll two d20s and leaned onto the table slightly in order to get a better look at the results. Although no one could tell for obvious reasons, her eyes widened as she looked at the second roll, and she immediately put her hands on the sides of her head in disbelief. “Natural 20!” she cried out, eliciting reactions of surprise and delight from everyone else around the table. Izuku chuckled, already anticipating that this may well be the coup de gras.

“Alright, uh, double the damage die from your shortsword and sneak attack, then add on your modifier as normal,” he said, a task which Toru gladly carried out. She eagerly accepted Mina and Kaminari’s d6s before she rolled them all at once, counting up the total once they all came to a stop.

“Uh, 10, 16, 22, so...27!” she said. “How’s that?” she asked, the anticipation in her voice evident as all the other players looked towards Izuku at once, eager to hear his ruling. Izuku took a brief moment to review the notes he’d been keeping on the entire battle before clearing his throat.

“Okay, uh, the dryad has been looking fairly alright until now, but with this especially vicious strike from you, Scratch, he’s, uh, he’s not having a good time. He coughs up a bit of dark green blood, and the moss seems to recede from his body where your blade struck. Likewise, the tree isn’t doing too well. It’s withered bit by bit as you’ve taken down each one of the moss monsters, and with this blow, it withers a lot more. And yet, even with all of this, the dryad’s still standing, albeit heavily wounded. One good hit ought to do it.”

“Awesome!” Toru said before getting back down to business. “Alright, so with Fast Hands, I attack with the dagger in my other hand as a bonus action!”

“Oh, nice!” Mina and Kaminari said almost simultaneously, while Izuku simply nodded.

“Alright, uh, roll it, with advantage,” he said, and she immediately did just that, only to abruptly slam her invisible hands against the table and turn away after looking at the result. A split second later, she looked back with a hand on her head, as if to double check that she wasn’t seeing things.

“Another natural 20,” she said in disbelief, prompting an excited outburst from everyone at the table, Izuku included.

“Two in a row, that’s insane!” Jirou cried out, trying to hold back her laughter, while Momo nodded rapidly.

“1 in 400 odds. I-it’s incredible!”

Izuku let out a chuckle of disbelief. “Uh, okay, double the damage die, again.” Toru promptly did so, before letting out a small delighted squeal.

“10 damage!” she said, causing Izuku to begin nodding immediately. The party, having grown aware of what this likely meant over the course of the session, all began grinning expectantly, waiting for Izuku to confirm their suspicions.

“Uh, yup, the dryad is unconscious,” he said, eliciting another round of cheers and congratulations. After a moment, once everyone had calmed down from their revelry, Izuku looked at Toru. “Is that all for your turn, Scratch?”

Toru took a few more seconds to compose herself before responding. “Uh, I’m just gonna move up to Rona’s side so I can help her out. That’s it.”

Izuku nodded. “Okay, uh, top of the round. Alis will make another death save,” he said as he rolled a d20 behind the screen, letting out a small murmur of surprise as he looked at the result. “Man, it’s, uh, it’s like the game wants us to, you know, wrap this up already. Alis, you’re up with 1 hit point,” he said, Izuku’s awkward joke nevertheless eliciting a chuckle from the party. Jirou, meanwhile, took a deep breath, ready to take her turn.

“Alright. Alis looks around, sees all the stuff going on, and they’re gonna limp on over to the tree, and when they’re sure they’re close enough and won’t hit their allies, they’re gonna cast Burning Hands. It’s gotta make a dex save.”

Izuku promptly rolled the save before nodding slowly. “Alright, it failed. Roll 3d6 fire damage, then double the total because it’s vulnerable to fire.”

Jirou chuckled lightly to herself as she assembled enough die to roll, then looked down at the total. “12, so 24.”

“Alright, after all of the damage the tree’s sustained through its minions being taken down one by one, in the face of this powerful wave of fire, it’s going to burst into flames, shining bright like, uh, like a massive torch in the darkness. The moss monster lets out a harsh shriek as it falls prone, the moss turning black and withering away into nothing, uh, to reveal an older elvish traveler with solid black hair. You all see the other moss monsters reverting to normal as well, and it’s, you know, same kind of thing: they’re all elves, and they all look like they were just ordinary travelers. At the center of it all is the dryad, who begins tossing and turning as the tree continues to burn, like he’s having a nightmare. You guys are out of initiative, what do you all do?”

Koda immediately turned to Jirou and rolled as he began whispering rapidly, to which she simply chuckled before turning to Izuku. “Whisper’s gonna run up to Alis and heal them with Healing Word, using up his last spell slot to give them 4 hit points.” She then turned over to Koda and got into character. “‘Thank you, my friend,’ they say kind of weakly, because, you know, they almost died.” Koda simply nodded with a smile, causing Jirou to smile a bit herself while Mina spoke up.

“Joy’s gonna move up and cast Cure Wounds on the dryad guy, using up her last spell slot. He looks like he’s not doing too good, so yeah.” With that, she rolled the necessary dice and tallied up the result. “He’s got 4 hit points,” she said. 

At the same time, Koda began whispering again, prompting Jirou to speak once more. “After that, he’ll walk around to each of the elves and cast Spare the Dying on them, in order to stabilize them.” Izuku nodded before turning to look at Mina.

“His eyes open blearily, like he, ah, just woke up, and he sees you all. He’s both confused and clearly in a great deal of pain.”

“‘Sup?’ Scratch says, kinda looking down at the guy she just stabbed a minute ago, not really sure what to think about him.”

“The dryad’s only more confused now.” Izuku cleared his throat, and began to speak in a voice slightly deeper than normal, but also sounding incredibly pained. ‘W-who...? What happened?’ His nose kind of twitches, now that he’s smelled the smoke from the fire, and he turns to look at the burning tree. He’s, just, completely horrified. He tries to rush towards it, but in his, uh, haste to get up, he ends up tripping and falling towards the ground.”

“Joy immediately tries to catch him.”

Izuku nodded. “Alright, roll athletics,” he said, prompting her to roll. 

“15,” she said. 

“Yup, you manage to grab him and pull him up into a sitting position,” Izuku replied. 

Mina nodded. “Joy looks at him and asks, ‘Hey, are you okay?’”

“He looks back at you, Joy, the cracks in his bark-like skin slowly growing bigger as tiny pieces seem to break away. He, uh, he glances back at the burning tree with fear in his eyes. ‘The tree...no, it can’t...no...’ He kinda struggles to get back up, clearly very weak from his fight with you and now his tree being set ablaze.”

“‘Is the tree important to you?’”

Izuku nodded. “‘If my tree dies...I will die...soon after.’” With those words, the entire party began to murmur to themselves, only to find their musings interrupted as Izuku held up a finger. “And that’s where we’ll be leaving things for right now,” he said, prompting various reactions from the rest of the group.

“Ah, come on, Midori, you can’t leave us with a cliffhanger like that!”

Momo simply sighed. “It’s for the best. It’s getting rather late, after all.” As she spoke, Toru just so happened to be checking her phone.

“Yeesh, it’s 10:35,” she said. A couple seconds later, Jirou yawned.

“I can believe that,” she said. “Thank God I tend to stay up late anyway.”

“Well, I believe it would be best if we all retired for the night. Even if it is a weekend, it still isn’t good to stay up too late.”

Kaminari chuckled. “Whatever you say, vice-prez. I’ll get  **right** on that,” he said, getting up from the couch and stretching his arms with a long sigh.

Izuku looked at Mina, that weird fuzzy feeling entering his chest as he saw her pouting slightly. “If it helps, you guys are all level 2 now,” he said, causing her deep black eyes to widen in excitement.

“Really?!” she asked eagerly, as the others turned to look at Izuku, less enthusiastic but still pleased.

“Yup,” Izuku replied cheerfully. “Which means it’s, uh, it’s only gonna get harder from here,” he said, prompting a chuckle from Mina.

“Oh, we’ll see about that. I’ve already got my next spell picked out. It’s gonna wreck  **everything** .”

Izuku smiled, that fuzzy feeling seeming to grow in intensity. “I’m looking forward to it. Same time next week?” Within seconds, the entire group had confirmed that they would be willing and able to play again, in one way or another. “Alright, I’d appreciate it if you guys had your characters leveled up by then. If you need any help, let me know, but otherwise, I think I’m gonna go to bed.” He glanced at Mina, smiling awkwardly. “Here’s hoping Mineta doesn’t kill me in my sleep,” he said, causing Mina to laugh a little.

“Oh, God, what did he  **do** to you?” she asked, dying to know the answer.

“A lot of shouting and punching my legs, but nothing too serious...yet,” he said, still maintaining the smile but nonetheless betraying his own apprehension. Mina laughed again.

“Well, if he gets to be more than you can handle, just say the word and I’ll have a...chat, with him.”

Izuku, too tired to think about what else Mina might have meant by that, simply nodded before walking up to the elevator. “Will do,” he said as he pressed the button and looked back at Mina. For a couple seconds, he found himself simply looking at her, that fuzzy feeling growing by the second before the ding of the elevator doors opening snapped him out of it. His face became beet red in an instant, and he immediately rushed into the elevator with a higher-pitched “Uh, b-bye!” In no time, the doors closed, and Izuku was on his way to his dorm room. Mina giggled as she watched him leave, likewise caught up in her own thoughts for a moment. However, she quickly noticed that others had been looking in on the exchange.

“Uh, what’s Mineta’s beef with Midoriya this time?” Jirou asked, causing Momo to scoff.

“Don’t tell me that he’s still berating him over that petty nonsense from the license examination,” she said, to which Mina shook her head, chuckling.

“No, no, it wasn’t that. I, uh, I hung out in Midori’s room for a bit yesterday, that’s all. Mineta’s right next door, he must’ve heard us talking about the game and got mad at Midori for having me over there.”

As Toru’s eyes widened unbeknownst to the others, Kaminari couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “Midoriya let  **you** into his room? Alone? Huh! Man...you think you know a guy.”

“I think the aforementioned petty nonsense shows that you are not always the most astute judge of character, Kaminari,” Momo countered simply, causing Jirou to burst into laughter while Kaminari groaned.

“Aw, come on, I told him I was sorry!”

Momo scoffed again, with a hint of amusement in it. “You’re lucky that Midoriya appears to be predisposed towards forgiveness for minor slights.”

Kaminari seemed to squirm a bit. “A-anyway, I was just saying he didn’t seem like the type to be cool with that, you know? I mean, I’m still not entirely sure that that isn’t breaking a rule around here.”

“I’m pretty sure if it was, you and me would both be in trouble by now,” Mina countered. Meanwhile, Jirou, having finally calmed down, began to smirk.

“Was the game the only thing you talked about in there?” she asked, in a slightly sultry tone. Kaminari smirked as well, while Toru was grinning like a madwoman. Koda started to look around uncomfortably as Momo chuckled softly.

“Now, now, that’s quite enough, you two. Mina’s private conversations are her own business, regardless of their subject matter. Besides, I really think we should all be heading to bed.”

Mina glanced at Jirou with a sly smile, knowing that she probably deserved the punk rocker’s teasing on this subject, at least to a point. “We talked about the game and scheduled this session. That’s all I’m free to talk about to you guys.”

Jirou held up her hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Alright, fair enough,” she said, while Momo rolled her eyes with an amused smile. Meanwhile, Koda finally mustered up the courage to speak as he walked up towards Mina.

“U-um, Ashido, c-could you, uh, help me level up Whisper for next week’s session?”

Mina smiled at the animal whisperer. “Of course, Koda, I’d be happy to. The rest of you down to level up before turning in?”

Kaminari and Jirou both signalled their agreement with a shrug, while Toru could only nod, still processing things. Momo politely shook her head. 

“I really must be turning in, I’m afraid. Still, I had a marvelous time. I’m looking forward to our next session. Good night, Jirou. All of you.” With that, she gave a curtsy before walking to the elevator to the girls’ wing. It wasn’t long after she left that Kaminari decided to speak up.

“You’re the only one she mentioned by name,” he said quickly, to which Jirou immediately smacked him on the cheek with her left ear jack.

“Shut  **up** , Sparky!” she snapped, beginning to blush profusely. A few seconds later, Toru began squealing.

“Ahhh, I knew it, I knew it-ow!” she cried as Jirou smacked her on the cheek with the right ear jack. After the pain subsided, she cocked her head in confusion. “Wait, how did you even manage to hit my cheek when you can’t see my face?” she asked aloud, forgetting about the pain for a moment.

“I  **guessed** !” she shouted, beginning to stew in her own embarrassment as Kaminari laughed softly to himself. Koda began fidgeting, unsure whether or not to speak up, while Mina looked at Jirou with a smirk of her own.

“So, if everyone here already knows, does that mean I get to talk about it now?” Jirou looked back at her with a look of pure rage.

“I will  **kill you** next session,” she said, in a tone that would’ve made most people shut up right then and there. Mina, however, was not most people by any stretch of the imagination.

“You mean you’ll try,” she said, her smirk getting bigger.

“I will  **succeed** ,” Jirou retorted, every word dripping with venom.

“Not with 7 total hit points you won’t.”

“Oh yeah?!” Jirou said as she angrily grabbed a d6 and rolled it, looking at the result and doing the math before looking back up at Mina with a malicious smirk. “14 total hit points. Double the potential for  **death** .”

As the two girls continued to stand off with each other, Toru and Kaminari began to grow worried. In the end, it was Koda who took action.

“C-can you all stop?!” he asked, in what was effectively a normal register. For him, it was practically an angry shout, and it immediately turned everyone’s attention off of the argument and towards him. “P-please,” he added, shrinking under the pressure of everyone else’s gazes. “Y-you’re being really mean, a-and I, uh, I don’t like it. I just want to level up Whisper and go to bed, o-okay? S-so please...stop.” By the end of his outburst, he looked like he’d collapse into a black hole from how much he was shrinking into himself. After looking at him for a second, Mina and Jirou looked at each other, both of them stewing in a different kind of embarrassment.

“Koda’s right, I...I’m sorry, Kyoka. I was being a jerk,” Mina admitted, rubbing her arm with her other hand in a sheepish manner. Jirou, meanwhile, twirled her right jack with her finger, looking down at the ground.

“Yeah, I, uh...I’m sorry, too, guys. For...acting out, and...smacking you two in the face.”

“To be fair, I think I deserved that,” Kaminari admitted, small currents of electricity running up and down his arm as he held his hand up to his cheek. “I’m sorry for being an ass.”

“Ah, w-what he said,” Toru said, holding her invisible hands clasped together in front of her chest.

“A-and I’m sorry for shouting like that,” Koda said in his usual quiet voice. “N-now, from now on, let’s have a, uh...what is it called? House rule? Table rule? I-I don’t really know that much.”

“I think table rule is right,” Mina offered, to which Koda nodded nervously.

“O-okay, table rule. The table rule is, a-as long as any of us are t-together, anything like this,” he said, alluding to what had happened by gesturing vaguely to the surrounding area, “is off-limits, uh, unless the person involved says it’s okay. What people might be, uh, feeling about certain other people, or, ah, what people talk about in, eh, other people’s dorm rooms...is their own business. D-does that sound good?” 

The four of them all nodded almost in lockstep. “Y-yeah, that’s good,” Jirou said, continuing to twirl her jack around her finger. “I-I think I speak for all of us when I say...we’re really sorry, Koda. I just, I know speaking up like that wasn’t easy for you, and I’m sorry for putting you in that position. It was...something a friend shouldn’t do.” The others nodded in agreement, causing Koda to blush and fidget some more.

“T-thank you. I-I’m glad we could, uh, you know, talk this out,” he said, unsure where to go from there. “Um, s-so...what was it that Jirou was doing earlier? Do we, uh, roll for our hit points this level?”

Mina nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, you, uh, you take one of your hit dice and roll it, and you add your constitution mod to that, to see how much you add to your max hit points. See, uh, for you, that’s a d8, so you take one of those and add...it looks like 2, to the roll...”

As Mina slowly settled back into her role as the most “experienced” player, that night’s arguments in turn faded from everyone’s minds...at least for a time.

* * *

_ Jirou: Hey, Momo, you up? _

Jirou sat at her bed with the lights on, a clear sign that she still wasn’t going to bed anytime soon. She didn’t quite expect Momo to respond, but her phone pinged in less than a minute.

_ Momo: So it would seem. I haven’t yet managed to fall asleep. _

_ Momo: Did you need something? _

_ Jirou: I dunno, I guess, just...someone to listen to me ramble for a bit? _

_ Momo: I think I can manage that. =) _

_ Momo: What’s going on? _

_ Jirou: After you left, me and the group kind of, uh, got into a pretty bad fight. _

_ Momo: =0 A fight?! _

_ Jirou: Yeah... _

_ Momo: What on Earth were you fighting about? _

_ Jirou: Well...Kaminari was joking about you liking me or whatever, so then I tried to make him shut up, but then Toru butted in...well, you know how Toru is. Already planning the wedding in her head, you know? _

Momo didn’t respond for some time, which left Jirou feeling worried. She better not have let anything slip. Eventually, after a long while of her phone simply saying that Momo was typing something, Jirou got a response much shorter than she had expected.

_ Momo: I see. _

_ Momo: What happened next? _

_ Toru: Well, after I slapped both of them upside the head with my jacks, Mina started talking crap too, and at that point I was pretty pissed off, so I started threatening to kill Joy next session. _

_ Momo: >=0 _

_ Momo: Jirou, you can’t keep hitting people with your ear jacks like that, at least not for something like this! _

_ Momo: If it were Mineta making a lewd comment about you, I’d understand, but this is little more than petty schoolyard teasing! It shouldn’t be met with such a reprisal, and it certainly shouldn’t come to have any bearing on our campaign. _

_ Jirou: I know, I know, it just...everything they were saying made me really angry. And embarrassed. I don’t know why, it just did. _

Another pause. Jirou let out a long, soft groan. She knew that this would all be water under the bridge the next day, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was disappointing her friend all the same. Getting chewed out by a teacher was one thing, but getting chewed out by Momo was one of the worst feelings she had experienced.

_ Momo: I see. _

_ Momo: I trust you were able to come to a resolution? _

_ Jirou: Yeah, we all apologized. Koda, he...he made us all cut it out. _

_ Momo: I see. I can imagine it was hard for him to speak up like that. _

_ Jirou: Yeah, I apologized to him for that too. I think we’re all more or less cool now. I don’t think anything like that will happen again, from any of us, but...agh, I dunno. I still feel twisted up about it, you know? _

_ Momo: I understand. _

_ Jirou: ...Are  _ **_we_ ** _ cool? I know you’ve told me not to do stuff like that a lot. I...I can’t help but feel like you’re super disappointed in me right now. ={ _

_ Momo: ;{! _

_ Momo: I’m not disappointed in you, quite the opposite! I’m proud of you! _

Jirou blinked a couple times.

_ Jirou: Really? Why? _

_ Momo: Well, you apologized! You recognized and admitted where you went wrong, and you promised to do better for the future. _

_ Momo: I’d say you handled that situation pretty well. _

_ Jirou: ...Huh. You’re really not mad at me? _

_ Momo: Jirou, there are very few things you could do that would make me mad at you for any length of time, you know that. _

Jirou found herself smiling slightly, such that she didn’t even notice her cheeks blushing.

_ Jirou: Ah. Cool. _

_ Momo: Hopefully the others will stay true to their own agreements. I’d hate for any of our newly strengthened friendships to fall apart. _

_ Jirou: Yeah, I haven’t really hung out with Midoriya much. He seems like a pretty cool guy, even though he is pretty awkward. _

_ Momo: Yes, I must say I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by Midoriya. At first I was rather vexed when we were partnered together as Class President and Vice President. His awkwardness around me was fairly off-putting, to be sure, and I have to admit, I assumed he would behave like some of my old classmates back in middle school, after I, uh...well, you know.  _

Jirou began to blush even further. She did know.

_ Momo: I realize now just how wrong I was about him. He’s really quite a kind and earnest fellow. Extremely skilled and intelligent...if also, unfortunately, extremely lacking in any sense of self-preservation. _

Jirou snorted. Yup, that was Midoriya, alright.

_ Momo: I also admittedly don’t talk to Kaminari all that often. I guess it felt slightly awkward to, after, uh… _

_ Jirou: After he asked you out? ;) _

Jirou couldn’t help but laugh a little. She was immeasurably glad that she had been in the room when he tried it. Those cheesy pick up lines he tried to use on Momo would never fail to make her laugh over just how terrible they were. Momo took a couple seconds to reply.

_ Momo: Well, ah, yes. I’m glad that he took my rejection in stride, at least. _

_ Momo: Besides, I think I know a very attractive woman who would like him much better. ;) _

Jirou turned beet red almost instantly, while at the same time feeling very exasperated at her friend calling her out like this. She frantically typed out a response while trying to compose herself.

_ Jirou: Noooo, stoppit! _

Jirou figured that Momo was probably laughing to herself in that annoyingly beautiful way she did whenever she found something Jirou said or did funny. She was glad they were texting, because she knew if she actually had to hear it, it would make the task of calming herself down a lot harder.

_ Momo: Oh, very well. I really think you ought to say something to him one of these days, Jirou. It’s fairly obvious that he likes you. _

_ Jirou: Well, you don’t know that. Besides, he’s all...smelly. A-and stupid. I don’t know what makes you think I like him, because I don’t. Because he’s smelly. And stupid. And...smelly. _

_ Momo: I see. _

_ Momo: Well, I know you do, in fact, like him because I know you, Jirou. And I’ve seen how you look at him when you know he’s not paying attention. True, there are moments when you seriously contemplate if disciplinary action is worth it purely for the sake of quite literally slapping some sense into him, but when he isn’t placing his foot firmly within his own mouth...you care about him, a great deal. And I think you would be a lot happier if you admitted that to yourself, and to hjm. _

_ Momo: ...*hum. _

_ Momo: *him. _

_ Momo: sorry, tired. _

This time, it was Jirou who didn’t respond for a while. She couldn’t, really. Momo had hit the nail on the head, in her typical fashion. In a few lines of text, she had managed to distill exactly how Jirou felt about Kaminari, and left her questioning why she didn’t just admit it. Momo was rarely wrong about things, after all, and she’d gotten such a good read on Jirou that she may well have gotten a similarly accurate read on Kaminari. And even if she hadn’t, what was Jirou so afraid of? That their friendship would be screwed up? Kaminari wouldn’t let that happen. He knew all about being rejected; he wouldn’t let anything change between them if he could help it, because he wouldn’t want her to feel the same way he had in the past. He’d take her confession in stride, the same way he’d taken Momo’s rejection in stride. And come to think of it...wouldn’t Momo do the same?

For how perceptive Momo seemed to be about Jirou’s feelings, Jirou didn’t know what to make of how Momo felt about her. Momo cared about her, that much was obvious. They were very close friends, and sometimes when they talked, she got the sense that there was something more, some...unspoken thing, between them. Kaminari had noticed it too; that’s why he was so damn insistent that Momo liked her that way, no matter how many times she smacked him in the face. And yet, at the same time, if Momo knew Jirou so well, wouldn’t she have realized Jirou had a crush on her by now? Jirou wondered, as she occasionally had before, whether Momo knew, but wasn’t going to tell Jirou she knew because she didn’t feel the same way and wanted to spare Jirou the pain of rejection. And yet, as she wondered about it, she came to the same conclusion as all the other times: that wasn’t something Momo would do. Momo would tell Jirou she knew and discuss the situation openly with her. So, if she knew, Jirou should’ve already known that she knew. 

All the same, the idea of Momo not knowing seemed ludicrous on the face of it. Kaminari figured it out, and he was about as lovably dumb as you could get. Toru had evidently suspected that Jirou had a crush on Momo for some time, and Mina had probably figured it out long ago. Momo was the smartest person Jirou knew; she had to be able to figure it out by now. But, then again...maybe Jirou just wanted her to be able to figure it out. If Momo figured it out on her own, then the ball was in her court. Jirou didn’t have to go up to her closest friend and confess her feelings, with all the risks that such a bold step brought. She could just sit back and wait, for as long as it took for Momo to figure it out and give her an answer, yes or no. But, then again, that wasn’t too far off from how she was handling her crush on Kaminari, was it? Waiting, for the right moment, the right feeling in her gut, the right information that she had which showed that the odds were in her favor. A wait that could last a day, or a month...or longer. A wait that may never end. Jirou hadn’t thought too hard about that fact before now, but Momo had. Momo knew full well that, when it came to Jirou and Kaminari, the wait wouldn’t end. Because when it all came down to it, Momo knew that the ball wasn’t in Kaminari’s court, and Jirou was starting to realize that it wasn’t in Momo’s court, either. It was in Jirou’s court. It had always been in Jirou’s court. 

And maybe tonight was the night she stopped waiting.

_ Jirou: You’re right, of course. He can be annoying, obtuse, and dumb as a bag of rocks more often than not, but...I gotta admit, I wouldn’t have him any other way. _

_ Jirou: And, uh, he can actually be pretty smart sometimes. That’s why I smacked him in the face earlier tonight. Because, uh, what he was saying...he was right. _

Jirou watched her phone with bated breath, waiting for a minute. Then two minutes. She set her phone down, stared up at the ceiling for a bit, checked back once five minutes had passed. Nothing. 

“She’s asleep,” she muttered softly, believing it.

She set her phone back down, stared up at the ceiling even more, tried to calm down her racing heart and quickened breathing. Picked up her phone at the ten minute mark. Nothing.

“She’s asleep,” she repeated, believing it less.

This process continued until she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. She drifted off to sleep still muttering that same simple mantra, not long after she had stopped believing it.

* * *

As the clock on his phone read “11:45,” Koda walked slowly out of the elevator and towards his dorm room, opening the door as gingerly as he could so he didn’t disturb his neighbors. When he closed it behind him in the same manner, as soon as he was satisfied that no one had been bothered by it, he let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. This then led to several quick breaths, each one seeming to get a little bit quicker as he sunk down against the door and sat down at its base. The little background noises that ordinarily didn’t bother him started to become oppressive, and he blocked his ears as soon as he hit the floor, still trying to calm himself down. So preoccupied was he that he failed to notice his roommate sneaking up on him, only realizing that she was there when he felt a small nuzzle against his knee. Although he still covered his ears, his rapid breathing began to slow down at the sight of his pet rabbit curled up against his leg.

“Hey, Yuki,” he whispered, far too low for any ordinary human to pick up. Nevertheless, his rabbit could hear him just fine, and cocked her head questioningly. He chuckled a little. “I’m okay, Yuki, really. I just...I just need a few minutes.” In response to that, Yuki looked up at him and twitched her nose, a signal he had grown accustomed to. “Alright, alright, you can come up,” he said with a smile, slowly removing his hands from over his ears in order to pick up Yuki and hold him close to his chest, stroking her soft fur and giving her scritches.

For several minutes, nothing more was “said.” All Yuki wanted was for Koda’s breathing to return to normal, which it eventually did, and for the sounds around him to stop butting in on his thoughts, which they eventually did. These tasks accomplished, she turned around such that she was looking right at him, a question in her eyes.

“A lot happened today, Yuki,” he answered. “Classes were, you know, the usual. Nothing bad to report there. I learned about a really fun game, I got to play it with a bunch of people I don’t really talk to that much, and...we all had a really fun time. We’re going to be playing next week, I think it’s gonna become a regular thing.” Yuki cocked her head again, causing him to sigh as he recalled the rest of the night’s events. “Yeah, after Midoriya and Yaoyorozu left, the others got into a big fight. There was people being hit with Jirou’s jacks, lots of screaming, threats of in-game murder.” Yuki squeaked, prompting Koda to comfort her. “Don’t worry, we talked it out. I think we’re all good now, I just...I had to speak up to get them to stop, and...well, you know I don’t like doing that. It was...rough. It was really rough, and I just kinda needed to let it out a bit, that’s all.” 

Yuki pressed her head into his palm, causing him to laugh. “Thanks, Yuki. You always know just what to do.” There was, of course, a reason for that. Anivoice could be adjusted to an extent, depending on the urgency of what Koda needed from surrounding wildlife, but it couldn’t be turned off. Koda had always been able to understand animals, and they always had a kind of connection to him even when he wasn’t making any noise except for breathing. It was like they instinctively knew what he needed, at least on a subconscious level. Yuki knew exactly what he was feeling and that he needed to be calmed down before he even shut the door. This was the very reason that he had requested to bring Yuki into his dorm in the first place, and why that request had been approved. She wasn’t the first animal to perform that service for him, or even the first rabbit. And yet, like all the pets that came before her, she was specially suited to help him and only him, no training required, simply through the power of his Quirk.

After a brief moment of silent contemplation on Koda’s part, Yuki looked up at him with a questioning glance once more, and Koda knew instantly what she was trying to ask, in her own unique way. He smiled, a smile that was drained and clearly under some duress, but still embodied a positive outlook all the same.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I think it was still a good day.”

* * *

Holy crap, I've been working on this for way longer than I should have.

I decided to try and whip up the next chapter of this story just for the heck of it, and I ended up writing for the better part of a day. I've got this chapter and the next chapter more or less ready to go, and I'm probably going to upload the third chapter in a week or two. I honestly don't know how to explain it, I've just been really motivated to write these, it kind of became hard to stop. I think after these two chapters, I'll slow down a bit before writing more, but at this point, I am definitely writing more. For now, though...I really need to go to sleep. Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments. Thank you all for reading, hope you all have a fantastic day, and take care.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unable to go to sleep after running the first session of his new campaign, Izuku is left mulling over his feelings about a certain pink-haired player of his. Fortunately, he has a friend with far more experience than him in matters such as this, although he may find it difficult to believe what she tells him.

Izuku was perplexed.

He had tried to go to sleep for the past forty five minutes without success. At first he attributed it to residual fear over what Mineta might do to him in the night if he closed his eyes, but the more he thought about it, the more he came to realize that his thoughts kept circling back around to that strange fuzzy feeling he got around Mina. It had happened maybe a dozen times just during the session, and Izuku for the life of him couldn't figure out what it meant.

He certainly liked being around Mina, that much was readily admitted. She had a kind of boundless energy to her that, although hard to keep up with sometimes, made her very fun to hang out with. He'd laughed out loud at some of the random puns and wacky hijinks that Mina allowed herself to get up to as Joy, and he knew that would be just the beginning as the campaign went on. And more than that, she was just...really, really nice. When he'd first met her, of all of the Class 1-A girls, she reminded him of the handful of popular people that he'd learned to be wary of in middle school. The people who only interacted with nerdy, Quirkless losers like him because they needed something, be it homework, random errands, or just a cheap approximation of the warm feeling you get in your chest when you do a good deed. For that reason, he had been especially nervous around her, worried that she, and almost everyone else in U.A. for that matter, would fall into the same patterns as his previous classmates.

And yet...she didn't. Nobody did. When she talked to him, he didn't feel like he was being condescended to, or like there was some vague sense of danger in every word she spoke. Mina was an open book; she wore her heart on her sleeve, and he knew barely a minute into their first ever conversation that she wasn't going to trick him or pity him or use him for anything. He couldn't explain why he knew that for a fact, other than that he just...did. She seemed to genuinely care about him, in the same way that she seemed to care about each and every one of her classmates, with Mineta perhaps being an obvious exception. Mina was the shining example of someone that Izuku had thought only existed in fiction: a popular person who's popular simply because they're a good person. And of course, beyond that, she was strong, kind, passionate, funny…

Pretty.

Izuku's cheeks reddened at the thought. Where had that come from? I mean, he'd always thought that Mina was pretty, but he thought that about all of the girls in Class 1-A. In their own different ways, they were all very nice-looking people, as were many of the guys in 1-A. So why was it that he was starting to think about what made Mina pretty now?

The striking contrast of her brilliant golden pupils and black sclera, an inky blackness he could easily get lost in. The messy curls of her pink hair, which looked like they couldn't possibly be tamed by a hairbrush, but also that they almost shouldn't. That the random manner in which the curls were arranged from day to day, moment to moment, still managed to create hairstyles that seemed so uniquely Mina. The way her smile seemed to make even the darkest room just a bit brighter by its mere presence. The way she smiled her bright smile and giggled in her unique, bubbly fashion, which made it seem like the most natural thing in the world to her.

Izuku tried not to think about these things, but they kept coming back around inside his head, and with a start, he realized why this feeling felt so strange, yet also somehow familiar:

He'd felt something like it once before.

In the days between the U.A. Entrance Exam and the first day of classes, he'd found himself thinking about another pretty girl he'd met. A girl with rosy cheeks and gravity-defying brown curls. A girl who had a more subdued energy about her, and a less prominent beaming smile that managed to make him smile back almost without fail. A girl who made him begin to suspect that U.A. would be different than the schools he'd experienced up until then, even if he didn't want to believe it for fear of falling into a trap. A girl whom he saved, and who saved him in return. A girl who was willing to put everything she'd worked for on the line for a stranger she barely knew. A girl who became his first real friend.

In that time right before his life truly changed for the better, Izuku found himself thinking about that girl and getting a weird feeling in his chest. He'd assumed that this must have been what many of his peers had allegedly experienced when "crushing" on other people. After all, she was definitely very pretty, and he'd never felt that way about any of the other girls he'd met. He'd been left unsure how to deal with that feeling then too, worrying that he'd let it slip whenever he saw her again. And yet, when he finally did see her again, and they had time to talk, the feeling...disappeared. Not overnight, of course, but with every passing day it seemed to get a little fainter, until finally it went away almost completely. He and Ochaco's friendship was purely platonic, and after he saw the way Ochaco smiled at Tsuyu with their hands interlocked, he wouldn't have it any other way.

He wasn't quite sure whether that meant it just wasn't a very strong crush, or if he had mislabeled the feeling as something completely different than what it actually was. Perhaps it was more of a platonic crush for a girl that he really wanted to get to know better, which he had mistaken for romantic attraction because he had never had a friend who was a girl before. In any case, what he was feeling now was similar, but different than what he'd felt back then. And, he was willing to bet that if anyone would be willing and able to help him figure this feeling out, it was Ochaco.

_Izuku: Hey, Uraraka. Sorry to interrupt Midnight Movie Night, but I'm kind of dealing with some weird stuff right now. It's, uh, it's about a girl in our class. I'm feeling...something, and I'm not quite sure what it is, or what to do about it. I was hoping you could offer some advice?_

After a moment of silence, Izuku got back a reply.

_Ochaco: Is the girl Mina?_

Izuku gulped quietly. How did she figure it out so quickly? As he debated how to answer that, Ochaco sent another text about five seconds later.

_Ochaco: If the answer's yes, that might complicate things._

_Izuku: Uh...why?_

_Ochaco: Because she's sitting right next to my bed watching the midnight movie with us._

Izuku gulped again, a little louder this time. That definitely complicated things.

_Izuku: ...So let's say the answer to that question is yes._

After a few seconds, Ochaco replied.

_Ochaco: You're gonna need to give me a minute._

* * *

Ochaco sat in bed with her phone held securely in her right hand, her pinky finger set aside in order to keep the phone from floating. She quickly glanced over at Mina, whose golden eyes were glued to the screen, before turning onto her other side and meeting the eyes of her girlfriend lying beside her.

"Hey, Tsu. I'm in the mood for a midnight snack. Do you want anything?"

Although Tsuyu's eyes remained fixed onto the screen, and her long tongue remained fixed on its task of scooping up popcorn from a bowl resting on her stomach, Ochaco could tell her words had had an effect on the frog girl. Tsuyu knew Ochaco better than anyone she had ever met, and that relationship worked both ways. Tsuyu remembered the persuasion she had to employ just to get Ochaco to accept that Midnight Movie Night required popcorn, and that this was non-negotiable. As such, Tsuyu knew for a fact that Ochaco adamantly refused to have midnight snacks, other than Midnight Movie Night-sanctioned popcorn. Midnight snacks required you to eat more food than was strictly necessary to continue living, and food costs money. Eating more food than you needed to eat meant spending more money than you needed to spend. And Ochaco never spent more money than she needed to spend.

"See if there's any candy in the pantry. The popcorn is getting low," she replied completely deadpan, as clear a signal as any that Ochaco was free to leave for whatever she needed to do.

"Got it, babe," she said before leaning over and planting a quick kiss on Tsuyu's cheek. This done, she rolled over so she could look at Mina again. "What about you, Mina, you want anything?" she asked, to which the pink girl shrugged as she ate from her own separate bowl of popcorn.

"Nah, I'm good."

"Cool. Lemme know when it's revealed that the butler did it." As Ochaco moved to get up without requiring Mina to move, Mina scoffed playfully.

"Ochaco, we've been over this: it was the milk lady!"

"It was most definitely not the milk lady," Tsuyu replied before briefly looking away from the screen to look at Ochaco. "Be careful," she said, a habit she had fallen into after everything the two of them had been through.

"Always," Ochaco replied with a bright smile, the same way that she always did.

Her feet touched the floorboards and she exited her dorm room, phone still in hand, her texts carefully hidden from Mina's sight. When she managed to get to the elevator and the doors shut, leaving her alone, she punched in the button for the ground floor and moved to call Izuku. He picked up after two rings.

"Ah, uh, hey, Uraraka," Izuku began, making sure to keep his voice lowered. "Sorry, didn't expect you to call."

Ochaco chuckled. "You're 'feeling something' about Mina Ashido. A call is the only way we're going to have this conversation." Izuku chuckled awkwardly, but Ochaco knew he was growing incredibly nervous. "So, what's this feeling like, huh?"

"Uh, well, it's, ah...warm? Yeah, it's a kind of warm feeling in my chest, you know? Like, the kind of warm, fuzzy feeling that just makes you wanna start grinning like an idiot. And you kind of don't want it to stop-"

"Yeah, you're crushing on her," Ochaco interrupted completely deadpan, causing Izuku to sputter awkwardly on the other end. She tried not to laugh out loud as the elevator doors opened.

"Agh, uh, n-now hold on a second, how-?"

"Warm? Fuzzy? Grinning like an idiot? Congratulations: you just summed up my entire emotional reaction to dating Tsuyu Asui in ten seconds." As she spoke, Ochaco swiftly walked from the elevator down to the pantry, where she began to look around for some candy. Izuku was silent on the line for several seconds before Ochaco heard him take a deep breath.

"Okay, so, uh, assuming you're right-"

"I am."

"-w-what am I supposed to do?"

Ochaco shrugged. "Hell if I know, what do you want to do?" she asked, frowning slightly as the pantry appeared to yield no candy. She was ready to return empty handed when she noticed an unopened bag underneath the central table of the common area. "Huh, wow. Someone left a whole bag of chocolates down here," she said nonchalantly, to which Izuku stammered out a response.

"T-that was one of the snacks Kaminari got for our Dungeons and Dragons session tonight. He bought two, and everyone had had enough after clearing out the one. I guess they just forgot to pick it up."

"Sweet! You think he'll mind if I take it?" she asked.

"Uh, probably not. You can always text him and ask."

"Yeah, I'll do that in a minute," Ochaco said as she plopped down onto the couch. "Anyway, you didn't answer my question, Deku. What do you want to do?" She rolled her eyes with amusement as Izuku continued stammering before eventually coming up with something coherent.

"I-I don't know, I mean, what you and Tsuyu have sounds...really nice."

Ochaco chuckled before sighing wistfully. "Ha ha...yeah," she said, momentarily overcome with a similar feeling to what Izuku was experiencing.

"A-and...now that I think about it, having that, uh, with Ashido would be...really nice."

"Oh, totally, she's great! You two would be, like, insanely adorable."

"B-but it's not like that's going to happen, right?" he finished, an awkward chuckle failing to hide the slight pain in his voice. Ochaco, meanwhile, let out a short scoff, as if she'd just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world.

"Well, what makes you so sure of that?"

"I, uh...w-well, you know."

Ochaco's gaze hardened, and the way she spoke next sent a chill down Izuku's spine. No doubt the tone she used would be feared by many villains and heroes alike in the years to come.

"What do I know, Deku? Tell me," she said, as calmly as she could manage, every word carrying a threat that Izuku immediately understood.

Izuku stammered for a while before eventually mustering up the nerve to answer her. "I, uh, well, I-I'm just completely out of her league, it's-"

"False. Try again."

Izuku sat in stunned silence for a couple seconds in response to Ochaco's immediate and blunt dismissal, before attempting to speak again. "I-I can tell you for a fact that she doesn't feel the same way about me, that's just-"

"False. Try again."

"Look, I just know, okay? None of the people I've met in my life have been interested in me in that way, and Ashido probably isn't any different."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because I'm **me**!" Izuku snapped, catching Ochaco slightly by surprise as he continued. "I'm awkward, and I sweat a lot, and I mutter to myself without knowing it all the time, and I still get nervous just talking to any girl except you for too long, and I never know what to say or what to do with my hands and it's all just-!" Izuku paused for a moment, taking a breath before finishing his thought. "Who'd want to deal with all of that?"

Ochaco put her free hand to the bridge of her nose as she sighed deeply, trying to figure out how to respond to that as calmly as she could manage.

"Deku, you're my best friend, but I swear to God, I am **this close** to marching up there and slapping you upside the head right now." Ochaco held up a finger as soon as Izuku tried to respond. "Nuh-uh, let me finish, okay? You're amazing. You're incredibly kind, extremely smart, by far the bravest and most selfless person I've ever met, and to top it all off, you're freaking cute, dude. Like, ridiculously cute. You're like an adorable bunny rabbit that got turned into a person, for God's sake." Ochaco realized a little too late that she was blushing a good amount, and was thankful that Izuku wasn't looking at her face at that moment. She hurried to finish her thought. "None of this is to say that Mina definitely likes you back, obviously, but like, it's certainly not **impossible**. And yeah, maybe you go for it and she says no, but it's not like that's a complete certainty. Besides, it's Mina. You know she'd be nice about it if she didn't feel the same way, at least."

Izuku let out a deep, long sigh, weighing what Ochaco said as he put a hand to his forehead. He had to admit, hearing her say all those things made him feel warm and fuzzy in a different way, but a small part of his brain was still warning him not to trust it. Of course, another thought occurred to him shortly thereafter, one which made him lock up instantly. "Honestly, I just thought about actually trying to ask her out, and I think my heart stopped for a second," he admitted, a mixture of sheepishness and anxiety in his tone. Ochaco couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"Hm, yeah. Understandable. Every time I thought about asking Tsu out, the anxiety would leave me feeling like I'd overused my Quirk. That's why I'm lucky she asked **me** out instead." She chuckled a bit as her thoughts returned to her amazing girlfriend for a moment. However, it wasn't long before she made an unexpected comparison, one which led her thoughts down a completely different track. After a couple of seconds, her eyes widened, and she laughed softly to herself, as if she'd just realized something that she should've picked up on immediately. "Uh, Deku? I think I just had an epiphany at, uh...12:45 A.M."

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Your Dungeons and Dragons session. Mina said that she had you thinking you were playing with her one on one, yeah?"

Izuku paused for a second before replying. "Uh huh. T-that was just so she could surprise me with the others showing up, though."

"Okay, but think about it. From what she mentioned to me and Tsu this morning, she invited a **lot** of people. Us, Iida, Todoroki, Tokoyami, Aoyama, Kirishima...who showed up to your session again?"

"Uh, Jirou, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, and Koda, who Jirou invited."

Ochaco nodded as she glanced down at the candy, feeling the urge to start digging in immediately and a part of herself furiously fighting to keep her from succumbing to what it saw as sloth and wastefulness. "So that makes 12 people that were invited for this thing, seven of which didn't end up going. Factoring in that Bakugo and Mineta probably weren't ever considered for obvious reasons, that means that she ended up drawing on three-fourths of the people in our class that could have shown up for this thing. The only ones who weren't invited by somebody were Sato, Shoji, Ojiro, and Sero."

"...Okay..." Izuku said, following along with Ochaco's reasoning as best he could. He wasn't sure on the conclusion she was trying to reach, however.

"Now, assuming that your group couldn't have made it, and that those last four people couldn't have made it, what do you think she would have done then?"

Izuku thought for a moment. "Well, she could've tried asking some other people that we both know. Like some of the Class B students, or Hatsume, or Shinsou."

Ochaco shrugged. "Maybe, but you gotta be honest, for the most part, we don't really know those guys too well. You and Mina at least live with all of us in Class 1-A, but the students in other classes, we only ever interact with them out of class or as part of some competition. I don't think Mina would invite anyone she couldn't be sure you'd be comfortable playing with for several hours." Izuku muttered something unintelligible on the other end of the line. He had to admit, Ochaco had a point. "It's a lot more likely that she intended to just go with what she'd planned originally if no one in our class could come. And it sounds like what she'd planned originally...was you and her. Alone. For several hours, playing a fantasy roleplaying game." Izuku fell silent, and his eyes widened as he dared to consider the possibility Ochaco was laying out before him. Ochaco knew she had him now, but she figured she could lay it on a bit more as she shifted the phone to speaker and drew the phone closer to her. "Sounds like a pretty fun first date, if you ask me," she said, smirking a little with satisfaction.

Izuku shook his head. "No. No, that's not-"

"Deku, seriously, if you finish that sentence with 'possible,' I'm going to find you and slap you as hard as I can with the back of my hand," Ochaco warned him as she began writing up a text. "You are an amazing, kind, and caring person who anyone in our year would be lucky to have as a boyfriend, and if anyone tries to make you doubt that for even a second, I will immediately introduce them to my goddamn **fist**. Do you understand me?"

Izuku was left completely stunned at Ochaco's swift and merciless rebuttal, only able to manage a short "Y-yes" in response to Ochaco's statement. He had to admit, in some ways, Ochaco was pretty much just a nicer version of Bakugo. He wasn't quite sure who was the scarier of the two.

"Good." Ochaco sent her text and continued on as if nothing had been said. "Anyway, it's the perfect plan. If people show up, you all have fun, and there's no way you could possibly think it had ever been a date, because who would plan to invite a bunch of friends to a date? If people don't show up, then you've got the perfect conditions for a date without her actually saying it's a date. In that case, if she thinks it's necessary, she can easily backpedal and claim that it was nothing more than a nice get together between friends. She could continue to hang out with you without you ever having to know how she really felt. If she doesn't think she needs to backpedal, though..." Ochaco trailed off for a second before the reply to her text came in, faster than she had expected, and she looked at the candy bag with even more indecision now that she knew she was allowed to eat it. "You gotta admit, it makes sense when you think about it," she said instead as she shifted the phone back to normal and pressed it up against her ear.

Izuku remained silent for a solid thirty seconds, lost in thought before he finally dared to ask a question that would've been ludicrous a few minutes ago. "Y-you really think she likes me? T-that she asked me out, kind of?"

Ochaco shrugged. "It's the explanation that makes the most sense to me. I've never asked her whether she likes you to her face, so I obviously don't know for sure, but I would be legit surprised if that wasn't the case." Having gotten her fill of sitting down on the couch, she decided to pick up the bag of candy and begin walking back to the elevator. "So...what are you gonna do about it, buddy?" she asked, betraying the giddiness in her tone.

As Ochaco waited for a response, Izuku paused for a moment, thinking the whole situation over. He still felt a great deal of apprehension, but at the same time...he wanted to make a move. He really, really wanted to. Now that he was seriously thinking about what he was feeling, he realized that a part of him might have wanted to for...a while now, actually. He could ponder **that** later. For now, though, even though he had no idea what that move might look like or when he'd muster up the nerve to do it, he knew one thing for certain.

"I, uh...I'm definitely doing something, at least."

* * *

Hey, everyone. I know I promised to put this up yesterday, but things have been pretty hectic in my personal life as of late, so I just kept forgetting to do it until now. I also was planning on this chapter including a second scene with Mina and Tsuyu, but again, hectic, plus I'm working on another fic I need to finish, so I ended up scrapping it. Sorry that this is a shorter chapter than the last few, and that it's late, but I hope you guys enjoy it nonetheless. As always, let me know what you think, have a fantastic day, and take care.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a rather eventful weekend for everybody in the U.A. Dungeons and Dragons group! Some people have begun new romantic relationships, others are eager to start a romantic relationship, and still others have unfortunately had awful things happening to them one after the other. How will the group's members react to each of these things? Only one way to find out!

Jirou took a deep breath as she sat at the table with her phone held out in front of her, contemplating what to say to start off the group chat she just created. She knew that she probably had to tell the others in the Dungeons and Dragons group sooner rather than later, if for no other reason than to get ahead of the rumors that were inevitably going to circulate. She groaned instinctively as she imagined how Mina and Toru would react, before she felt a hand on each of her shoulders. With a few encouraging glances, Jirou started typing.

_Jirou: Alright, so, you guys probably have a lot of questions about what happened yesterday morning._

Almost immediately, replies started rolling in.

_Toru: Definitely._

_Mina: Yeah, like, I literally just woke up an hour ago and apparently Mineta's been moved out?_

_Mina: Something about breaking into Momoyao's room? What's going on with that?_

_Koda: I heard about that too. Are you okay, Yaoyorozu?_

_Momo: I'm fine. Thank you, Koda._

_Momo: To make a long story short, I accidentally left my door open earlier yesterday morning. Mineta must have deduced that and sought to take advantage of it in order to rifle through my...belongings._

_Momo: I succeeded in stopping him before he could make off with anything, however._

_Koda: Well, that's a relief._

_Kaminari: Yeah, he was, like, cocooned in capture tape the last time I saw him, lmao._

_Mina: Huh. You seem surprisingly okay with that._

_Toru: Yeah, aren't you two friends or something?_

_Kaminari: Ehhh...I wouldn't go that far. Especially after this._

_Kaminari: We got along well most of the time, but..._

_Kaminari: Look, you disrespect my friends, then you aren't my friend, you know what I mean? And I think of all of you girls as my friends._

_Mina: Awww. =_

_Kaminari: I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a while, but at this point, good riddance._

_Toru: Wait, so is he expelled or something?_

_Momo: Not exactly. The principal believes it to be unsafe to actually expel anyone, so long as the League of Villains is still at large. Nobody wants a repeat of what happened with Bakugo._

_Toru: Aha. Makes sense._

_Momo: However, Mineta is no longer a part of our class._

_Mina: Whoo!_

_Toru: Yeah!_

_Mina: Would it be insensitive to throw a party? Cuz I kinda wanna throw a party._

_Momo: Kyoka and Kaminari have already made plans to that effect. ;)_

_Jirou: Common area at 5, y'all, don't miss it._

_Jirou: I got Sato to bake treats for the occasion._

_Mina: 0-0!_

_Mina: Okay, yeah, I'll be there._

_Toru: Same!_

_Koda: Ah, I dunno, I'm not really much of a party person._

_Jirou: Yeah, I figured. That's why I told Sato to bring some treats by your place before the party starts._

_Koda: Aw, thanks, Jirou!_

_Jirou: No problem, man._

_Jirou: Oh, btw, for those wondering, Mineta's apparently taking one on one classes with Midnight now._

_Toru: ?_

_Koda: Uh, I don't know Mineta that well, but, um...isn't that something he'd like?_

_Jirou: See, I figured that too, but Momo seemed to think otherwise._

_Momo: I'm telling you, Kyoka, you should have seen the look in her eyes when the principal asked her to do it. It was *horrifying*._

_Mina: Hang on, there it is again!_

_Mina: You keep referring to her by her first name!_

_Toru: 0-0_

_Toru: Hold up._

_Koda: Oh, yeah, that did seem a little odd._

_Momo: Ah, yes. That was another thing we wanted to discuss with you all._

_Toru: No way_

_Momo: Kyoka and I are dating._

_Mina: OMG_

_Toru: AAAAAAAAAA_

_Jirou: Ugh, this is exactly what I was worried about._

_Koda: Oh, wow!_

_Koda: Uh, is "congratulations" the right response here? I'm not quite sure how that all works._

_Jirou: It works. Thanks, dude._

_Jirou: Glad someone here isn't completely freaking out. =/_

_Mina: SCREW YOU I NEED DETAILS_

_Koda: Ashido, remember the table rule._

_Mina: BUT DETAILS_

_Koda: They might not want to give details, though._

_Koda: Also, Hagakure, can you please stop screaming? I can hear it all the way from my room. ;(_

_Toru: SORRY_

_Toru: I'M JUST SO EXCITED_

_Momo: Thank you, Koda, but I think we can give at least some details._

_Mina: YES_

_Momo: As long as none of you bother Kyoka and me asking for details we don't wish to disclose, alright?_

_Jirou: And don't go blabbing to anyone outside of this group, alright? I'd rather not deal with everyone finding out immediately._

_Mina: Got it, got it, now dish the dish, sis!_

_Jirou: Okay, okay, calm down._

_Jirou: So, uh, after we all leveled up our characters the other night, me and Momo were talking._

_Mina: Uh huh..._

_Jirou: And, uh, I was telling her about how all of you were teasing me about, you know, liking her._

_Mina: Uh huh...!_

_Jirou: So, I kinda just...went for it._

_Jirou: Just, flat out said I liked her._

_Toru: OMG YES!_

_Mina: Aw, I knew you could do it!_

_Mina: Just needed a little bit of prodding. ;)_

_Jirou: A little, she says. =/_

_Toru: How did you take it, Momoyao?_

_Momo: Ah, well, I fell asleep before she sent the text._

_Mina: Oh no! xD_

_Toru: xD_

_Momo: Yes, it was definitely something to wake up to._

_Momo: I wasn't entirely sure that I wasn't still dreaming._

_Momo: And I have to admit, I may have, uh...overreacted, somewhat._

_Mina: Omg, what did you do?_

_Kaminari: She ran straight to the common area in nothing but her nightgown._

_Kaminari: No hair tie, no shoes, none of that. I've never seen her look more disheveled in my life. xD_

_Jirou: Ugh, we *just* went over the table rule!_

_Momo: It's alright. I suppose this is as good a time as any for Kaminari to share his perspective._

_Toru: Ooh, do tell._

_Kaminari: Ah, there isn't too much to talk about. I was hanging with Mineta. We had just wished Midoriya luck on this interview he was doing yesterday._

_Mina: Whoa, what?_

_Mina: Is he doing a work study?_

_Mina: Who's it with?_

_Mina: Why am I just now hearing about it?!_

_Kaminari: Hey, hey, easy, Idk any of that. He just said he was going to an interview._

_Kaminari: Dunno what came of that. Has he not brought it up to any of you guys?_

_Toru: Nah._

_Koda: Nope._

_Mina: Nah, this is the first I've heard._

_Momo: That's unusual. I would have assumed he'd tell the group he was applying for a work study, in case it affected future sessions._

_Toru: Yeah._

_Toru: Eh, we can ask him later. I wanna hear the rest of the story!_

_Kaminari: Okay, okay, jeez._

_Kaminari: So, yeah, we were just chilling when all of a sudden, Momo rushed in from the stairwell, asking us where Kyoka was._

_Mina: Wait, hold up, hold up._

_Mina: "Kyoka?" ;)_

_Mina: Do my eyes deceive me? ;) ;)_

_Jirou: ..._

_Jirou: Alright, so there was *another* thing we wanted to talk about. =/_

_Mina: Goddamn, you go, girl! =D_

_Toru: THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE_

_Koda: Hagakure! Stop screaming please! ;{_

_Toru: SORRY x{_

_Koda: But also, congratulations! Again!_

_Jirou: Ugh, why do you two have to be so dramatic?_

_Jirou: But thanks, Koda._

_Kaminari: Yeah, thanks a lot, man._

_Mina: Gee, Yo Yo, how come your mom lets you have two cute partners? xD_

_Jirou: Stop calling me that, I swear to God!_

_Kaminari: Wait, Mina, you call her Yo Yo? =0_

_Jirou: Uh huh. All the time._

_Momo: =0_

_Momo: This is valuable information._

_Jirou: Please no._

_Kaminari: Aw, I like it, though. It's cool and cute at the same time! =_

_Mina: Finally, my genius is appreciated._

_Jirou: "Genius," she says._

_Momo: It is rather cute, as nicknames go. ;)_

_Jirou: Et tu, Momo? =/_

_Mina: Ha! Now you can't possibly deny it!_

_Toru: Okay, I've managed to get all of the squealing out of my system._

_Toru: What'd I miss?_

_Koda: They've all been talking about Mina's nickname for Jirou._

_Mina: !_

_Koda: *Ashido_

_Koda: Sorry, I got mixed up for a second. ={_

_Mina: No, no, dude, it's okay! I don't mind!_

_Mina: Tbh, I like my friends calling me "Mina" a little more than "Ashido" anyway._

_Koda: Oh! Um, are you sure? I mean, I know most people call you that, but like, Midoriya and Iida don't, plus I don't really know you that well, so I didn't wanna risk it._

_Mina: Yeah, those two can be a little too formal sometimes, lol._

_Mina: Go for it, man! =_

_Toru: Honestly, I like my first name a lot better too. "Hagakure" is super long, but "Toru" is short and sweet!_

_Mina: Aww! Just like you!_

_Toru: =}_

_Koda: Well, alright then. I'll try to remember that._

_Kaminari: So, do you wanna hear the rest of the story, Mina, or are you just gonna keep flirting with people? ;)_

_Mina: Pfft._

_Toru: Story please!_

_Mina: Yeah, I wanna hear the rest._

_Kaminari: Alright, so Momo's asking where Kyoka is, and as far as I knew, she hadn't come down to the common area and was probably in her room, so I told her that._

_Kaminari: Girl immediately booked it back up the stairs and at this point I'm thinking, "Okay, something's up. I better go check on her." I looked at Mineta, and he had this look in his eye. I could tell he was planning something, so I told him flat out "Don't try anything, man," and went up the stairs after Momo._

_Jirou: Narrator: He tried something._

_Momo: xD_

_Mina: Omg, yes. xD_

_Kaminari: So I finally get up there, the door's open, and, uh...well, I'll let the girls share the rest if they want._

_Mina: 0-0_

_Toru: 0-0_

_Jirou: I really don't want to, tbh. Momo?_

_Momo: I will only say that it was nothing scandalous._

_Momo: But that our mutual feelings for each other were made...extremely evident._

_Mina: Aww. Was it romantic? ;)_

_Jirou: Eh..._

_Momo: I'm...not sure I would call it that, personally, but it was...relieving._

_Jirou: Yeah. Felt like this huge weight was lifted._

_Mina: I'll say. It was almost painful to watch you two sometimes. Did you seriously not know until last night, Momo?_

_Momo: Unfortunately, yes._

_Mina: Jeez. Well, I suppose we all got our blind spots._

_Momo: ...Indeed._

_Mina: So, what happened next?_

_Kaminari: Well, I was about to leave the girls alone, but Momo realized she had left her door open earlier, so she wound up heading back upstairs. She kinda gave Kyoka a look on her way out, which I didn't pay any mind in the moment, but looking back on it..._

_Mina: Omg, you knew, didn't you? xD_

_Momo: ;)_

_Toru: Wait, so you knew that Jirou liked Kaminari and that he liked her, but not that she liked you? How's that work?_

_Momo: Admittedly, there was a fair amount of second-guessing involved._

_Momo: In retrospect, it was pretty obvious, but before today, in spite of the evidence, I wouldn't have considered it a likely enough possibility to act on with complete confidence._

_Jirou: I definitely didn't think it was likely, even when I actually went for it._

_Kaminari: Same. I figured Kyoka would hit me in the face with her jacks if I tried to ask her out._

_Jirou: I wouldn't have hit you in the face. =/_

_Mina: I mean, you do hit him in the face a lot._

_Jirou: No I don't!_

_Momo: I've counted at least five separate incidents which I have been made aware of over the course of the year._

_Jirou: ...Point taken._

_Jirou: But I'm not doing that anymore, I promise._

_Kaminari: It's true. I made her promise me that. ;)_

_Toru: So, you really are both dating Jirou now?_

_Jirou: Uh, yeah._

_Momo: Indeed._

_Kaminari: Last I checked._

_Toru: Okay, just making sure because now I think I might have to let out some more squealing._

_Jirou: Oh my God. =/_

_Mina: Pfft. Can I join you? I've been resisting the urge for a while now._

_Jirou: Ugh, why did I let you guys talk me into telling them again?_

At that moment, both Momo and Kaminari, who were sitting in chairs adjacent to Jirou, moved closer, such that their heads rested on both of Jirou's shoulders. Jirou sighed, blushing profusely as she responded to the reminder.

"Ah. Right."

Her partners both giggled as Jirou looked down at her phone, trying to keep herself together. She found herself briefly distracted as she read the latest text in the group chat.

_Koda: Midoriya's gonna have a bad time scrolling through all this when he comes on._

"Huh, yeah," she remarked out loud. "Where is he anyway?"

* * *

Izuku walked from the train station to the Heights Alliance dorm building in a daze, still playing through all of the events of the last two days in his mind. Saturday had been bad enough. Being accepted as an intern to All Might's sidekick would have left him bouncing up and down with joy under ordinary circumstances, but the look of contempt in Sir Nighteye's eyes...Izuku knew he wouldn't soon forget it. In those eyes, it was like Izuku could see everyone who had ever told him, with or without words, that he wasn't good enough; that he'd never accomplish anything; that he was too dumb and too stubborn to face reality. That he would always be nothing but a worthless, Quirkless loser. Becoming All Might's successor, starting to really get the hang of One for All, had given him hope that all of those people were wrong about him; that he could amount to something. That belief was what drove him to accept Nighteye's offer anyway, even if it was all just to drive home how much better Nighteye's sidekick, Mirio Togata, would have been as a successor to All Might. Izuku had allowed himself to think that this internship could still be a valuable learning experience. He had been optimistic.

But, of course, the universe could never allow him to be optimistic.

He ran through every second of the incident in his head. When he had first bumped into Eri, a little girl fleeing from some dark figure in an alleyway. When he saw up-and-coming crime lord Kai Chisaki standing over him as he tried to comfort her. Their conversation. The bandages on her arms and legs. The way she refused to let go of him...until Chisaki moved to take off his gloves, a deadly sign Izuku had noticed far too late. Watching them walk deeper into the alleyway, deeper into the darkness. And, of course, that same look in Nighteye's eyes as the hero berated Izuku for his arrogant idealism.

It would have been easy to dismiss the look Nighteye gave him if Nighteye were simply wrong. If he was just a jerk who delighted in causing him pain, like all of the kids who had made fun of him in the past. Izuku wasn't sure that that wasn't the case, to be honest; he had seen a hint of bitterness in those eyes as well. Perhaps Nighteye had hoped to be the successor himself?

Izuku shook his head, driving away such thoughts. For as much as he had revered the legendary hero, Nighteye didn't seem like the type of hero who would want All Might's power for himself, and all of the fame and infamy that came with it. And even if he had, Izuku couldn't write off Nighteye's criticisms as nothing more than simple jealousy. The hero was right; acting rashly could have led to Eri getting hurt, not to mention Izuku, Togata, and a lot of other innocent people. They all could have been hurt or killed, and it wouldn't have accomplished anything. A part of him wondered if he could have done something, if both he and Nighteye had underestimated their capacity to help Eri. But, he knew that, whatever his feelings about leaving Eri behind, Chisaki was too powerful for Izuku and Togata to deal with safely. He knew this. He couldn't argue with this.

So why did it still hurt so much?

"Ow!" he cried out as he slammed face-first into the front door of the common area, having been far too lost in his own muttered thoughts to focus on where he had been going.

Oh. That might have been why.

"Whoa, dude, you okay?" he heard someone ask, their voice muffled by the door. He mumbled something in response, too busy clutching his face in pain to think clearly. The door opened, and he was led inside by something wrapped around his arm like a rope. As the door closed behind him and he began to get his bearings, he saw that one of Jirou's jacks had pulled him into the building, causing his eyes to widen a bit. He forgot how strong those things could be sometimes.

"Hey, Midoriya, you made it!" Kaminari called out, waving from across the common area. Izuku moved to wave back before he noticed that Kaminari appeared to be tossing a purple stress ball up and down for some odd reason. As Izuku looked around, he began to notice other things: a bunch of identical purple stress balls sitting in a large bowl, cupcakes with alternating purple and yellow frosting, red cups filled with lemonade, a lemon cake with white frosting, and what appeared to be a piñata crafted in Mineta's image which Momo was trying (and failing) to hang up onto the ceiling. Once Kaminari had made it over to him, Izuku looked at him, then Jirou, then back to him.

"Uh...what's going on?" he asked, more confused than he had been in quite some time.

"Mineta's eviction party," Jirou replied immediately in a deadpan tone before drinking a cup of lemonade. "Mineta's not invited," she added, smirking.

This only confused Izuku further, causing Kaminari to cut in. "Dude, did you not see the group chat?"

"What group chat?" Izuku replied.

Kaminari was about to answer before he stopped, looked at Izuku, and grinned, shooting him with a pair of finger guns. "Ah, I see what you're doing. Forget I said anything." Before Izuku could say anything else, Kaminari spotted Kirishima coming down the stairs with Bakugo in tow, and quickly moved to join them. Jirou rolled her eyes and cracked a wry smile as Kaminari ran off, before turning to Izuku.

"You have no idea what Denki's talking about, do you?"

"Nope."

"Figured," she replied, blushing a bit as she realized her slip up. She looked at Izuku's face. "You sure you don't want an ice pack or something? I could have Momo make you one in, like, two seconds."

Izuku shook his head; the pain had largely faded by that point. "Nah, I'm good. What's this about a group chat? Mineta getting evicted? And did I hear you say 'Denki' earlier-?"

"Jirou, can you help me with this?!" Momo called out in a panic, clearly having trouble keeping the piñata from falling on top of her.

"Coming!" Jirou replied, eagerly taking the opportunity for an exit. "Check your messages, don't tell anyone outside the DnD group, if you do I'm leaving and maybe murdering you, cool? Cool." With that, she departed, leaving Izuku with little more information than he had had before the conversation started.

Realizing suddenly that he hadn't had anything to eat or drink since breakfast, he decided to sample some of the snacks that had been laid out. As he cut himself a slice of lemon cake and drank a cup of lemonade, he idly glanced around the area, trying to distract himself from his thoughts. He nearly choked on his lemonade when he saw Midnight of all people leaned up against a wall further down the hallway to the laundry rooms, casually partaking in a slice of lemon cake herself. His troubles were temporarily replaced by a new series of questions, and he soon found himself walking over to the R-rated hero, who flashed him her (quite literally) trademarked smile.

"Oh, hey, Midoriya," she said, taking another bite of her cake while pointing at Izuku's plate. "Mmm. You made a good choice, this cake is _exquisite._ "

Izuku couldn't keep himself from sweating nervously. From his point of view, out of all of his teachers, Midnight was uniquely terrifying, for a number of reasons.

"U-um, Miss Midnight-?"

"Half-tempted to ask Sato who taught him how to bake. For personal reasons."

"Miss Midnight, w-what are you doing here? What is all this about Mineta being evicted?"

Midnight paused mid-bite, somewhat confused. "Wait, did you not know? You live right next door to the little scamp, how did you not notice him being moved out yesterday?"

"I...was busy," Izuku replied hesitantly. "I had a lot on my mind, I guess." Without thinking about it, he muttered, "Although the fact that he didn't try to hurt me in some way was kind of weird."

"I'm sorry, what?" Midnight asked, having to hold back a laugh. Realizing he had said that out loud, Izuku promptly changed the subject.

"S-so, he was evicted yesterday?"

Midnight nodded. She'd play along for a bit. "Mhm. Got busted Saturday morning for breaking into Yaoyorozu's room and trying to make off with her clothes. Nezu didn't think it was safe to actually expel him, so now he's my little side project."

Izuku blinked. He didn't like the sound of that. "S-side project?"

"Yup. He's receiving instruction separately from the rest of you guys in 1-A, under my supervision. Nezu thought I would be...uniquely suited to make him into a productive and non-misogynistic member of society." She giggled with a kind of eagerness which left Izuku even more uneasy.

"S-so this party...was it Ashido's idea?" he decided to ask.

Midnight chuckled, giving Izuku a look which he couldn't quite read. "You'd think, wouldn't you? But nah, I think it was Jirou's. She's the one who's been managing everything, from what I've seen." She chuckled again. "Didn't seem like much of a party planner, but...I suspect she had some help," she said, glancing towards the girl in question as she, Kaminari, and Momo succeeded in setting up the piñata. Izuku followed Midnight's gaze briefly before daring to ask another question.

"And y-you're here because...?"

"Hm? Oh, I was grading papers. Got bored. Went out for a walk, saw Yaoyorozu with that silly piñata, walked in, and hey! Lemon cake." As she spoke, she took one final bite, evidently pleased with the dessert before deciding to switch gears. "So, anyway, what's this about Mineta wanting to hurt you? Sounds serious."

Izuku began blushing, sweat continuing to accumulate as he hastily came up with an explanation.

"Ah, uh, i-it's not, don't worry. He, uh, he was just mad that I was, ah, hanging out with Ashido, that's all." Izuku sighed in relief. It wasn't technically a lie.

Midnight, however, simply smirked. "Really?" she asked. "Sounds serious~." At this, Izuku only reddened even further, causing Midnight to laugh.

"W-what gives you that impression?!" he asked, half-panicking and barely managing to get the words out. Midnight, still clearly amused, managed to calm down enough to answer.

"Well, whatever that was, for one. Also, between your hair and your face, you're kinda looking like a ripe tomato right now, kid," she said, chuckling as the mental image that analogy generated moved to occupy a permanent spot in her brain. The comparison then became even more accurate, which made Midnight a bit more sympathetic. "You know, I'd wager you got a better shot than you think," she said, glancing off to the side with a smirk on her face.

"Huh?" Izuku asked, preoccupied with his own embarrassment. Before he could respond further, a familiar voice called out to him, immediately diverting his gaze away from Midnight and towards the common area. His eyes widened slightly when Mina came into view, wearing short jeans and a stylized black top with the word "acid" written on it in bright, colorful letters. She was waving to him enthusiastically, her bright smile on full display, and for a brief period Izuku was too busy smiling back to even think about looking away. However, as the pink girl began moving towards him, he was provided with something to snap him out of his trance.

"4, 5-wow, 6 whole seconds of awestruck silence," Midnight said, still smirking and causing Izuku to start blushing once more. "You've got it bad~, huh?"

Izuku couldn't quite manage an articulate response, and as Mina came within earshot, she definitely noted the same resemblance that Midnight had earlier.

"Man, dude, where have you been all weekend?" she asked. "I missed you." As Izuku began stammering in response to that heartfelt statement, Mina grinned before glancing at Midnight. "Almost as much as I missed seeing that look on your face. Seriously, what the heck were you two talking about?"

Midnight chuckled before Izuku could compose himself. "Oh, nothing much. I was just complimenting Midoriya here on his excellent taste."

Mina chuckled somewhat awkwardly in response, beginning to form a hypothesis about their conversation. "In cake?" she asked, hesitating slightly.

Midnight took a second before replying. "Yup."

Izuku, at this point growing somewhat cross with the carefree teacher's presence, got himself together enough to try and get her to go away. "H-here's an idea, w-why don't you help yourself to another slice of cake, miss Midnight?" he suggested, in an embarrassed and exasperated tone which only served to amuse Midnight even more. Never before had she been told so politely to shut the hell up.

"I like the way you think, kid," she said before walking away from the pair like a model on a runway, and doing exactly what Izuku had suggested. Mina watched her go with a perplexed look on her face, while Izuku took the opportunity to take a deep breath, centering himself just enough to immediately do something stupid.

"I-I like your outfit," he said, before immediately regretting it and blushing again. Mina turned towards him and smiled, although part of her brain remained fixed on what Midnight had said to him earlier.

"Thanks! The letters are supposed to be kind of a pan flag deal, but in like a tie dye thing, you know?" As Izuku looked at the letters again, he could see the traces of cyan, yellow, and magenta mixed in amongst the white letters. He couldn't quite hide his surprise; he hadn't noticed that about this particular shirt of hers before.

"It looks nice on you," he said, not quite sure how else to respond. Mina smiled a little bit brighter.

"Thanks," she said again, more softly this time, before chuckling a bit. "Your outfit looks nice too, but...I dunno if it's what I'd wear to a party, personally."

"Huh?" Izuku asked before looking down. He had just remembered that he never took off his hero costume before he left Nighteye's agency for the day. "Oh. Right. I-I should probably change."

"Yeah," Mina agreed with a slight smirk. "You mind if I walk with you and wait in the hallway while you do that?"

Izuku began blushing a bit more. "I-I'm probably just gonna turn in afterwards. It's...it's been a long day, and...I don't quite have the energy for a party or a hang out right now. You should stay here, have fun with the others."

Mina's expression softened into a look of understanding, with traces of concern. "Is it something you can talk about?"

Izuku winced. That was the hardest thing about this. "Not really, no. Agency policy, we can't disclose anything without authorization, so-"

"Gotcha, gotcha." For a moment, nothing more was said, before Mina held out her hand. "C'mon. The others will still be here in a couple minutes. Besides, I've, uh...I've been wanting to talk with you about something for a few days. If that's alright?"

Izuku hesitated for a moment before taking her hand in his. "Yeah. Yeah, that's fine."

Mina smiled at him, a little bit of her usual brightness returning, but also...the slightest trace of lilac in her cheeks. "Cool," she said, before leading him through the common area and towards the elevator. As the pair walked, Izuku glanced around, and to his relief, nobody seemed to notice them. That relief proved to be short-lived, however, as he spotted Midnight with another slice of lemon cake, which she put down in order to give him two thumbs up. Izuku grumbled slightly and looked away, thankful that Mina didn't seem to notice their teacher at all. Only when the elevator doors closed did Izuku dare to speak.

"S-so, uh, what's this I'm hearing about a group chat?"

"Hm?" Mina said, evidently distracted for a second. "Oh, yeah, Jiriou's dating Momo and Kaminari."

Izuku's eyes widened a bit as he let out a chuckle. "Huh! Wow, that's...I mean, I thought Rona and Alis were being a little flirty back at the bar, but I wasn't expecting that."

Mina giggled a bit. "I don't know how they didn't figure out they liked each other before now. They've been lowkey flirting with each other for almost as long as I've hung out with them."

Izuku chuckled a bit before a question occurred to him. "And just to be clear, Yaoyorozu and Kaminari aren't-"

"Probably not, yeah," Mina interrupted, chuckling. "If they were, they would've said so, plus..." She made a dramatic show of putting her fingers to her temples and concentrating with her eyes closed, as if she were trying to move something with telekinesis. Izuku couldn't help but crack a smile at her before she stopped and shook her head. "Nope, can't imagine it."

Izuku found himself chuckling along with her for a moment before he thought of something else. "You know, a group chat would be useful for the campaign. We could use it for, uh, updates and stuff."

"Heh. Yeah," Mina agreed. "You...are still thinking of running a session this Friday, yeah? I'm sure everyone would be cool with you waiting a bit, if you aren't up to it."

Izuku paused, considering the question. He didn't want to disappoint her and everyone else in the group, but...

"I dunno," he admitted. "I dunno. I...I'll need to think about that."

Mina nodded, her concern returning. "Got it. Just, uh, let us know what you decide, you know?"

"Yeah, no, yeah, I'll...I'll do that." As Izuku spoke, the elevator doors opened, and he looked down the hallway for a second before turning around. "Well, uh, this is where I get off."

"Yeah," Mina agreed, for once at a loss for words. As Izuku turned back around and stepped out of the elevator, in a moment of impulse, she held her hand over the door, preventing it from closing. "Wait," she called out, desperate to say something. Izuku, a little confused, turned around again, looking at her quizzically.

"Y-yeah? What is it, Ashido?"

For some reason, she found herself feeling a little upset about that, just enough to where the already-thin filter between her thoughts and her words dropped entirely. "You can call me Mina, you know," she said, smiling slightly while blushing a deeper shade of lilac than Izuku had ever seen on her face.

"Y-you sure?" he asked, blushing himself. A part of his brain felt like he knew where she was going with this. The rest of his brain didn't want to believe it.

"Y-yeah," she replied, somehow more embarrassed now that he was embarrassed, and feeling the need to deflect a little. "I-I mean, to be honest, Ochaco probably wouldn't mind it, either. Think Momo would be fine with it; her family name's pretty long anyways. Toru definitely doesn't mind, she couldn't care less. And, you know, Tsuyu's been asking you to call her that since we met her, s-so..." She let her half-stammering sentence end somewhat abruptly, leaving a brief awkward silence between the two of them.

"Uh...okay, sure, Ash-um, Mina," he said, blushing a bit deeper as he caught himself. Even if he'd almost slipped up a few times in his head, saying it aloud would still take some getting used to. "I-I'll have to ask the other girls, just to make sure," he added, not sure how else to continue the conversation. Eventually, after another pause, he asked, "...Is that all you wanted to say?"

Mina's eyes widened ever-so-slightly at the way Izuku asked that question. It sounded as if he was anticipating something. Had he been expecting her to ask what she wanted to ask? Was he hoping she would? She was ordinarily pretty good at reading people, but she never could tell how much of Izuku's nervousness around her was him being interested or just him being nervous around girls in general. After hearing Jirou's stories earlier, she had figured that a direct approach would be more effective than what she had been doing, so if he really was expecting it, then…

Then...

"I... **we** like you, a lot," Mina said. "You know, everyone in the DnD group, I mean. Plus the, uh, the Midorisquad, heh, obviously. Really, pretty much everyone else in 1-A except for Bakugo are pretty chill with you, from what I can tell. And...you know, I know you said you actually can't talk about whatever is bothering you, but still...we're all here for you. I just...I wanted to remind you that, you know, me and a lot of other people really care about you. Okay?" She paused to look at him, the concern in her eyes causing a curious effect on Izuku's part. That same warm and fuzzy feeling he had experienced before felt even more intense, to the point where his chest felt constricted because of it. It had been a hot minute since he had experienced anything like that, and when he began crying right in front of her, Mina naturally became even more concerned. "Midori?" she asked, a part of her worried she had said something wrong, and yet he seemed to be...smiling? As she took a step closer towards him, he held out a hand, taking a second to breathe.

"I'm good. I'm good," he said quickly, wiping at his eyes with his arm before taking another couple of breaths. "I just...it's a little hard to believe it sometimes. You know?" Mina's expression softened. She did know, at least some of it, anyway. His wobbly smile said more than any amount of words could convey, and seeing it in that moment, Mina found herself wanting to hug him more than she had ever wanted to hug a person in her entire life. Still, she didn't want to risk making him uncomfortable, so instead she simply laughed a little and smiled her usual bright smile.

"Believe it, buddy," she said, causing him to laugh a little himself. The two stood in silence for a moment, both too distracted by each other to speak. Eventually, when the awkwardness started to settle back in, Izuku spoke up.

"I, uh, I'm gonna go turn in now, but...thanks. I...I think I really needed to hear that today."

Mina smiled back at him. "Don't sweat it, Midori. See you in homeroom tomorrow?"

Izuku couldn't help but chuckle at that, and, in fact, he actually felt somewhat confident in that particular moment. "I, uh, I haven't known you to be the type of girl who looked forward to homeroom," he said, doing his best to hide his nervousness with his replication of a calm, confident smirk. Mina couldn't quite hide her surprise, or her blush. Izuku Midoriya was honest to God trying to flirt with her. Not wanting to be caught too off-guard and feeling a little more daring herself, she decided to reply in kind.

"Yeah, well, I used to hate homeroom, but...then I remembered that you were in it," she said, her smile becoming somewhat flirtatious. "So now I figure it's actually pretty sweet." The two chuckled for a couple seconds before they both looked away, rubbing their shoulders and hoping the other person didn't notice their ridiculously visible blushes. "A-anyway, see you then," she finished awkwardly.

"Y-yeah, see you," Izuku said, while Mina moved her hand from the door and allowed the elevator to close, leaving Izuku no other option but to return to his room and evaluate what had just happened.

As soon as she was sure he was out of earshot, Mina immediately began giggling with a giddiness appropriate for a schoolgirl, bouncing up and down a little in the elevator. She still felt concern for Izuku's well-being, and it was for this reason that she ultimately didn't say what she had been planning on saying initially. All the same, however, there were still things to celebrate here. She could now say, without much room for doubt, that Izuku liked her back. The fact that he even attempted flirting with her proved it, not to mention everything else she had noticed. Of course, now was most certainly not the time, she knew that. He was clearly going through a lot. Best to give him some space, let him come to her when he was ready. For now, though, she could allow herself to jump around a bit.

Or so she thought, at least, before the doors opened mid-jump, revealing Jirou, Momo, and Kaminari all looking at her with varying degrees of amusement. Back on the ground, Mina chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head and averting her gaze as all three of them grinned a little bit wider. In her head, Mina sighed with some slight annoyance. They totally knew.

Izuku's thoughts as he got settled into his room for the first time since he woke up were far more muddled. Everything from before was still there; the guilt, the regrets, the voices in his head telling him he was nothing but a failure. And yet, now...now the thoughts didn't exist in isolation, at the very least. Now they were joined by other thoughts, by mental snapshots and potentially irrational hopes he wouldn't dare speak of. And when he finally settled down to sleep after hours of catching up on homework, it was not nightmarish recaps of the day's horrors which greeted him, but pleasant dreams about a pink-haired girl more beautiful than anyone he'd ever met. And for some time, he slept peacefully, experiencing some brief respite.

At least, at first.

* * *

Agh, finally, this took forever.

I agonized a lot over this particular chapter. I wanted to cover a lot of the big relationship stuff, but I'm also conscious of the fact that this is supposed to be a Dungeons and Dragons fic, so I wanted to strike a good balance to where I could cover what I wanted to while leaving room for more DnD shenanigans in the next chapter. Dunno how good of a job I did, especially with the text convo; that took me so much longer to push through than the rest of this, and I honestly couldn't even tell you why. Still, in the end, it's done, and hopefully y'all enjoy it. Let me know what you think, have a fantastic night, and take care.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's session two of Izuku's Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and while the rookie Dungeon Master had a lot more to worry about since the previous session, he was confident that he could once again provide his friends with a good time. But what will happen when things begin to go horribly wrong, in a way that he couldn't possibly have predicted?

_“Focus.”_

Izuku stood alone in the elevator, his assorted Dungeons and Dragons supplies held in a box under one arm as he attempted to settle down.

_“Focus on the game. You told them there’d be a session today. You told her there’d be a session today. There will be a session today.”_

He took a deep breath, then another, trying to suppress all of the other thoughts that have been swirling around in his brain as of late. The situation with Eri and Chisaki. The repeated insistence that he’d never measure up as All Might’s successor. The prediction that All Might was going to-

 _“Focus!”_ Izuku repeated in his head, more determined than ever to root these thoughts out. He had made his friends a promise and he was going to keep it. He was going to run this session, and he was going to do everything in his power to ensure that he did it well, without any of the things that had been weighing him down all week. His friends deserved that much; things had never been easy at U.A., and he wasn’t about to make them worry about him even more on top of everything else they had to deal with. That’s what being the Symbol of Peace meant, at least how All Might had defined the role. It meant putting on a brave, joyous smile no matter what. A smile meant to reassure everyone that things would be alright, even when they weren’t. That you had the situation under control, even when you didn’t.

That you were okay, even when you weren’t.

The elevator doors opened, greeting Izuku with the welcome sight of the common area and the even more welcome sound of his friends’ conversations. As the party came within view, he noticed that Jirou, Kaminari, and Momo had retained their seating arrangement from last time, with Jirou in the middle and her partners sitting close to her on either side. He was also happy to observe that Jirou had gotten a bit more comfortable being affectionate with her partners in public, as she let her head rest contentedly on Momo’s shoulder while Kaminari held his arm around her. A part of Izuku contemplated asking Jirou how she had grown accustomed to it so quickly. The thought of one partner being that affectionate with him was already enough to make him nervous; two, he reasoned, would send him into cardiac arrest. Not that he had been thinking about anyone in particular hugging his arm and laughing happily as they walked around the city, of course.

Turning his thoughts to other avenues, he gave a polite greeting to the happy couples and turned towards Koda in order to greet him as well. The quiet boy had taken a seat to Izuku’s left, likely wanting to be closer in order to get across what Whisper was doing without talking too loudly, and he simply smiled in response. Across from Kaminari, Toru greeted Izuku almost eagerly, while Mina, sitting next to her on Izuku’s right, smiled at him with a look that seemed to say a thousand words at once.

“Hey,” she said warmly, looking straight into his eyes and seeming to blush just a bit upon seeing him sit down at the table.

“Hey,” he replied back, surprised by how quickly he had managed to compose himself. The fuzzy feeling was back, and as much as it made him even more nervous, he had to admit it was doing a better job keeping his mind focused on the task at hand than his elevator pep talk. Coughing awkwardly, he put his things down on the table and began to set everything up for the session itself. He was so focused on this task that he failed to notice the way Mina continued to look at him, a look which lasted long enough for everyone else to notice it first. A slight chuckle from Momo brought Izuku’s attention back to his friends for a moment, but by that point, Mina had realized what she had been doing and coughed awkwardly herself, blushing a fair bit more. Deciding to ignore it, Izuku pressed on, his preparations complete.

“So! Are we ready to start?” he asked, looking around the room. The question prompted everyone else to ready themselves, Jirou and her partners separating for the moment while Toru turned her attention away from Mina as she regained her composure.

“You bet!” Mina replied eagerly, shifting into her Joy voice. A few of the party members chuckled lightly, and decided to follow Mina’s lead.

“Sure,” Toru said, the harsh voice of Scratch coming to her surprisingly easily.

“I was born ready,” Kaminari said, trying to sound cool the same way he had tried before.

“Always,” said Jirou, once again adopting Alis’ prim and proper accent.

“Let’s go,” Momo said, more comfortable with the gruff voice she had devised for Rona than during the first session.

Koda, in a rare instance of impulsiveness, let out a cawing sound, having learned from a young age how to mimic many of the animals he commanded through his quirk. Judging from the table’s laughter in response, he surmised that the joke had been well received. Izuku chuckled himself before launching into the recap he had written up beforehand.

“Alright, so, when last we left off...”

* * *

After the group had gotten their bearings and the freed elves had departed for the safety of the tavern, figuring out what to do next proved to be fairly simple. The dryad, Fernis, was bonded to the tree that had been corrupted by the strange moss, causing him to become corrupted as well. Neither can be separated from the other, and should one die, the other would follow suit within 24 hours. From what Fernis could remember of when he was infected, the corruption compelled him to spread the infection to other fey creatures like himself, as well as creatures descended from fey, like the elven travellers. As such, the fledgling adventurers were left with two problems: stopping whoever had infected Fernis and the others from hurting anyone else, and finding a way to save Fernis’ life in less than a day.

“Joy is gonna look at Fernis and ask him ‘Is there anything you remember from before all this happened?’”

Izuku took a second to consult the module before coughing a bit, getting into character.

“‘Just a...vague image.,’ he says, speaking, you know, very slowly, very deliberately. ‘There was...an elven man...holding a wooden staff. He cast some...spell at me, and then...nothing.’”

“‘Hm. You think he’s still around?’ Scratch asks the rest of the group as she casually sharpens her dagger.”

“Alis is gonna chime in. ‘It’s a possibility. If we assume that this spell was what brought about the infection, then it is likely that only a fey can spread the infection, rather than a being of fey ancestry such as myself and the other elves.’”

“‘Yeah, it seemed like the moss monsters just wanted to kill everybody,’” Kaminari remarks, leaning back in his seat as Rai was presumably doing in that moment.

“‘And if he already found one fey in a forest as big as this, chances are he’s found another,’” Momo adds, her expression doing a lot to convey the impression of her being a tall and imposing warrior. Jirou couldn’t help but look at her girlfriend in awe for a second before her ear twitched, and she overheard Koda whispering something to Izuku.

“Hm? Uh, yeah, you can do that. Make an Arcana check,” Izuku answered, prompting Koda to roll a d20 and whisper the result. Izuku nodded in response, and took a moment to formulate what information to reveal to Koda before clearing his throat.

“Whisper, you, uh, you naturally have a bit more knowledge of this forest than most, particularly the animals, plants, and people that call this forest home. You remember hearing stories of mischievous pixies and other fey creatures causing travellers trouble, leading many people to avoid the woods. A, uh, exception to this trend is the story of the lubberkin, large hairy figures with a tail who would guide lost travellers. You, uh, you don’t remember much else about them, or any of the other fey you’ve heard about. Do you tell the rest of the group about this?”

Koda nodded, and leaned towards Jirou, but Jirou was already on it. “Once Whisper says all that to Alis, they’ll first thank him for the info, then address the group. ‘Whisper here was just telling me about different kinds of fey creatures, one of which are lubberkin, who act as guides to lost travellers. I believe that information may prove significant.’”

“‘Huh, yeah. Person like that would probably know where people are most likely to be.’ Scratch kinda puts away her dagger; it’s as sharp as it’s gonna get.”

“‘And they wouldn’t be stuck to one spot like ol’ Ferny here,’” Kaminari adds, causing Izuku to chuckle a bit.

“Fernis, he, uh, he isn’t gonna dignify that nickname with a response. He, eh, he does say one thing, though.”

“Oh?” Mina asked, curious on what Izuku was about to add.

“Fernis says ‘There’s one lubberkin...I know of...in these woods, named Corey. He dwells deeper within the woods...near the center. Of course...if he has been taken over...he may likely have moved...but if not-’”

“‘He’ll be there,’” Mina finishes for Izuku. “‘And we gotta help him.’”

“Fernis just nods, groaning a bit. ‘You...you should go. In my weakened state...I’ll only slow you down.’”

“Joy speaks up pretty much instantly. ‘Without you, we might end up getting lost along the way, though, and that would just slow us down more! Besides, we need all the help we can get, right, guys?’”

The rest of the group generally nodded, although Jirou seemed intent on saying something.

“‘There is the risk that, should we find this old man, Fernis will become infected once again, leaving us with the unenviable position of fighting a battle on two fronts.’” Mina nodded slowly, not really being able to argue with that, but still not wanting to leave Fernis alone.

“‘I may be able to travel...part of the way,’ Fernis says to you, Joy.”

“Joy smiles. ‘Sounds good! And hey, who knows? Maybe we’ll find a way to help you at the same time!’”

Izuku paused for a second before continuing. “Fernis smiles weakly and says ‘Perhaps,’ but he doesn’t sound entirely convinced.”

“Oh, Joy’s gonna change that, trust me,” Mina said with a chuckle, leaving Izuku to reply in kind before turning to the rest of the group.

“So, are you all ready to head out, or would you like to take a short rest first?”

“Rest!”

“Rest.”

“Rest, please, I am literally on 1 hit point,” Jirou said, chuckling a bit in order to ameliorate her nervousness.

“Yeah, I figured,” Izuku said good-naturedly. “Alright, you guys, you know, take your short rest, heal what you can, and as soon as you’re done, you can head out towards the center of the woods. That sound good?”

The chorus of agreement which followed set Izuku at ease, reassuring him that he was doing a good job thus far. He wasn’t sure why he had been so worried earlier; as long as he kept himself busy, everything else that had been on his mind before never even came up. He could just focus on having a good time with his friends, exactly as he had intended, and he anticipated that he would be able to wrap up this leg of the adventure much earlier than the previous session had ended. 

It shouldn’t be that difficult, he figured. There were only gonna be a couple brief encounters before the group reached Corey’s cottage in the woods, dealing with some natural hazards and a couple wild animals. Then, of course, there was the cottage itself, which they would find surrounded by a couple of moss monsters while some commotion was going on inside. Taking out the moss monsters, they’d go in only to find that they were too late: the old man, known as Tiren, had already infected Corey, ordering the gentle giant to attack the party. The two of them together were a fairly formidable team, but with so many players in their group, the party should have had no problem defeating both of them and advancing to level 3. The encounter was balanced; Izuku had double-checked himself, just to be certain.

As far as he was able to tell, there was nothing that could possibly go wrong.

* * *

Everything went wrong.

It started out pretty much exactly as he had predicted. Whisper was able to identify the dangerous plants growing along the road, and was able to steer the others around them before anyone had to start making Constitution saves. The river they had to cross had seemed daunting, but between Rona’s great strength and Whisper’s ability to turn into animals, the party made their way across easily enough. The situation had even led to some fun roleplaying, even if most of that was just Jirou and Momo flirting with each other as Rona bridal-carried Alis across the river. Thus, after a brief run-in with a pack of dire wolves that were swiftly routed, the group was able to make it to the cottage and fight off the moss monsters with only moderate difficulty, leaving Fernis in a glade nearby for his own safety.

It started to go awry once they got inside.

“‘Fools!’” Izuku said, cackling and doing his best to sound as cartoonishly evil as possible. “‘You are already too late! Now rise, minion! Rise and destroy these interlopers!’”

The entire party, Mina especially, couldn’t help but laugh at how over-the-top Izuku was acting while roleplaying Tiren, and seeing that they liked it made Izuku smile brightly. Nobody at the table was likely to know he had based Tiren’s voice on the main villain of the poorly-received “All Might Adventures” cartoon from ten years ago, but the reference still made him happy anyway, and that was the important part. In any event, there were other things to focus on at the moment.

“Alright, Corey begins to lumber forward, covered in moss, while Tiren holds up his staff and prepares for battle. Roll initiative, everybody.” After the process of rolling dice and giving out results had been tallied up, the actual combat began, with Scratch going first.

“I’m gonna Dash as a bonus action and get right up in the old guy’s face!” Toru called out excitedly, eager to set up her Sneak Attack in advance. Izuku chuckled.

“Okay, you going for a shortsword attack?”

“Yes please!”

“Roll it,” Izuku said, and before Toru even finished rolling, Izuku figured it was going to hit. Spellcasters were not known for their high AC.

“16! Does that hit?” Toru asked, to which Izuku nodded, causing her to grin. “Alright, so that’ll be...9 damage!” 

Izuku blinked, not expecting Toru to roll maximum damage, but continued on without much interruption, subtracting the number from the boss’ hit points. “Yeah, with that one swing, he’s looking fairly injured already. You figure, ah, few more attacks like that and he’s done.”

“Nice! Scratch is gonna kinda smirk and be like ‘Ha! Pathetic.’”

“Hey, Midori, you mind if Joy calls out something real quick?” Mina asked, the look in her eye suggesting she was planning something.

Izuku considered it for a second. “Sure, I’ll allow it.”

“Awesome. ‘Hey, Scratch, move off to the side of that old guy!’”

Toru looked over at Mina for a moment before nodding. “‘Yeah, alright,’ and I’ll try and move around so that I’m next to the old guy.”

“Got it. Mina, you’re up,” Izuku remarked, and his use of Mina’s first name hardly went unnoticed by the rest of the group. Mina chuckled, looking back at Izuku with a smirk on her face.

“Remember when I said my new spell was going to wreck everything?” she asked, causing Izuku to chuckle in kind.

“What are you doing, Joy?”

“I’m gonna run right up in front of the big guy and cast Thunderwave,” Mina answered promptly. “And if I read the thing right, both the big guy and the old guy gotta make Con saves.”

“Alright...” Izuku muttered, rolling a couple of dice before looking back at the group. “They both failed. What happens now?”

Mina grinned, eagerly stretching her fingers out in front of her like she was about to work on something. “Joy’s gonna stomp on the ground, and as soon as she does, a big wave of energy erupts in front of her, sending the bad guys flying ten feet away from her and dealing...” Mina’s eyes widened as she looked back at the two d8s she had rolled. “16, holy heck, what is with our dice tonight?!”

“Max damage again? Damn, I might not even get a turn in at this rate!” Kaminari chimed in somewhat dejectedly, lamenting his natural 1 on initiative earlier.

“I wouldn’t count out Corey just yet...” Momo replied, remembering how big he was according to Izuku’s description.

“Indeed; the, uh, the blast messes Tiren up pretty badly, sending him flying into a wall, but Corey only appears to be moderately injured, albeit, you know, really pissed off. Anything else, Joy?”

Mina murmured to herself for a bit before deciding what to do. “Joy’s a bit bummed that the blast didn’t take out Corey, so she’s gonna look over to Rona and say ‘Alright, time to bring in the big guns! Literally.’ And she’s gonna give a little wink, while Rona gets bardic inspiration.”

“Rai kinda looks between Joy and Alis like, ‘Being big and strong, huh, is that all it takes? That all it takes for people to flirt with you all the time?’”

“‘Not the time, sailor,’ although you notice Alis is blushing a bit.”

“‘Hmph.’ Rona rolls her eyes, but she does appreciate the encouragement.”

“Anyway, uh, in that case, it’s Tiren’s turn now. He looks around at you all, ah, pretty nervously, before glancing towards a window and suddenly disappearing in a cloud of mist.”

“Ah, crap, can we see him?” Jirou asked.

“He’s, uh, he’s visible out one of the windows, but he quickly disappears from view. It seems like he’s making a break for it as fast as he can. Whisper, what are you doing?” Koda leaned over to whisper to Izuku, who promptly nodded. “Alright, roll it,” he said, waiting for Koda to do so and glancing at the result. “Yup, you hit. Roll damage, and both Corey and, unfortunately, Joy need to make a Dex save as a shard of ice flies from Whisper’s hand and hits Corey.”

Mina nodded, rolling her save and breathing a sigh of relief. “Phew, 18!”

“Okay, and Corey failed, meaning he’ll take another 2d6 cold damage on top of...3 piercing damage,” Izuku remarked, glancing at Koda’s dice again. After another quick glance and a short conversation, he added, “6 more, so 9 damage total. Corey’s getting there, although he’s not down yet. Alis, you’re up.”

“Alright, I’m gonna move up and see if I can find anywhere where I can get a clear shot at Tiren.”

Izuku considered this for a moment. “Hm...yeah, that should work. You move up closer and spot him out of a different window, much further away.”

“Like 120 feet away?” Jirou asked, causing Izuku to chuckle.

“Not even close.”

“Cool. Alis sings a short melody before three darts of magical energy form around them. They point a finger towards Tiren and mutter ‘Go,’ causing the darts to fly off towards him, seeking him out. You guys got some extra d4s?” Her partners readily volunteered theirs, causing Jirou to smile a bit before rolling for damage. “13. Hopefully that’s somebody’s unlucky number,” she said with a smirk. Izuku nodded.

“Yup, as the darts, uh, crash through the window and fly towards Tiren, you watch as the fleeing old man is pierced by the darts and falls to the ground, unmoving.”

“Haha, nice!” Toru cried out.

“Excellent work, Jirou!” Momo added, causing Jirou to blush a bit.

“Okay, so, is the moss still on that Corey guy? The old guy cast the spell; did taking him out undo it?”

Izuku took a quick breath before responding. “Unfortunately...the moss is still covering Corey.”

The group briefly voiced their disappointment, although they had had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy.

“Dang. Alright, I move back a bit and end my turn.”

“Okay, it’s, ah, Corey’s turn now. Since he’s still infected...he’s gonna move towards you, Alis, charging past Joy in order to slam down on you with his fists. Joy, would you like to make an opportunity attack?”

“Yup! ‘Oh, no, you don’t!’ and I try to stab him with my dagger.” Mina rolled her d20 and grimaced when the result came up. “12?” she asked, her tone hopeful, before Izuku shook his head.

“Unfortunately, you just barely miss, carving off some moss on his shoulder as Corey goes to attack.” Izuku paused to roll his d20 behind the security of his DM screen, glancing down at the result with a look of growing apprehension. “Uh, okay, so, he just landed a crit.”

“What?!”

“Oh, boy.”

“This isn’t good...”

Izuku took a deep breath. This was unexpected, but, he reasoned, it would be fine. He’d probably just roll low enough to just knock Alis out real badly. True, he had double the damage to worry about now, but as long as he rolled low, nothing too bad should-

“27,” he muttered, dumbfounded. He stared down at the dice, doing the math in his head twice, then three times just to be certain. The results were the same.

“Uh, Midoriya?” Jirou asked.

Given the minor injuries that Alis had received earlier, coupled with their low hit point maximum, 27 damage was enough to...well. He wasn’t about to fudge it; he couldn’t. It’d go against his instincts as a dungeon master. And yet, to do it so soon, so suddenly, felt almost...cruel.

“Midoriya, you good?” Jirou asked, a little more forcefully this time.

“Midori, what’s wrong?” Mina added, her voice laced with concern.

Izuku took a deep breath. There was no getting around it. He tried to ignore the thoughts that were coming back around now that he’d let down his guard, pushing them down just long enough to say what needed to be said.

“You all watch as Corey, ah, rushes towards Alis and slams down with all of his considerable strength. Alis...they take 27 bludgeoning damage, uh, from the attack. They fall to the ground...not moving.”

Jirou and a couple of the others nodded slowly, not quite understanding the gravity of the situation. “Well, yeesh, alright. Guess I gotta start making saves and-”

“Hang on,” Mina interjected, feeling like she understood what had left Izuku so upset. “Wasn’t there a rule somewhere about getting knocked out? Like, if the damage goes above a point...”

Izuku nodded, not being able to say much in that moment. “The leftover damage after they would have dropped...it, uh, it’s more than their hit point maximum. Which means...” Izuku took another breath. This was a lot harder than he could have imagined. “Which means they didn’t make it,” he finished, looking down at his dice to avoid looking at Jirou and the others.

“Didn’t...wait, they’re **dead**?” Kaminari asked, surprised. “No death saves, no chance to heal, they’re just...dead?”

“I’m...I’m afraid so,” Izuku replied. He could feel the thoughts coming back, as much as he tried to stop them. “There’s...there’s nothing you can do.” They kept getting louder and louder, so much so that he didn’t even realize he had voiced one of them aloud, albeit so softly that only Jirou heard him.

“You can’t save everyone.”

Izuku heard the party discussing something, but his mind was so preoccupied that he couldn’t make out any of it. All he could make out was that it was loud, too loud. He instinctively covered his ears, knowing if he didn’t that it’d make a meltdown even more likely. He imagined that the others were probably looking at him as he hid behind the DM screen, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to pause, breathe, get a handle on these thoughts before he blurted something out and made them worry about him even more. All he’d wanted was a couple hours of fun with his friends, and he couldn’t even manage that. He had rolled the dice and now Alision was dead. Not even two sessions in and Jirou’s character was dead. He knew on some level that it wasn’t his fault, but that information hadn’t seemed to click in his brain enough for him to not feel guilty about it anyway. 

Was she mad at him for what happened? Would she stop playing after this session? If she did, what about everyone else? From what he had gathered, Jirou’s presence was part of what made Koda comfortable enough to play. If she left, would he end up leaving too? 

“Midori?”

What about Momo and Kaminari? If Jirou was mad at him, they probably wouldn’t continue playing either; she was their girlfriend, after all. Those four players had been responsible for most of the cool moments in combat, as well as most of the roleplaying. Without them, the game would be a lot less fun. Sure, he could invite other people to play, but who would want to play with him after such a massive screw up?

“Midori,” he heard this time, as he looked up and noticed Mina’s hand on the DM screen. He blinked, not aware that he had been on the verge of crying.

“Y-yeah?” he said, uncovering his ears as he attempted to compose himself.

“Jirou has a question,” Mina explained, her soft expression clearly indicating her concern. Izuku looked over to Jirou, who seemed to be similarly concerned, along with the rest of the party. Exactly what he’d been trying to avoid.

“Uh, sure. W-what’s up, Jirou?”

Jirou took a deep breath before asking her question. “So, uh, before Alision...dies...is there a chance they could give any last words?”

Izuku blinked again. Jirou sounded...disappointed in the way things had turned out, but not...overly upset. He stopped to consider her question. One might be inclined to answer no, that dying instantly means dying instantly. That was probably what the rules had intended. And yet, at this moment...Izuku figured that the rules could be bent a little.

“Uh, yeah, go, ah, go right ahead.”

Jirou nodded. “Cool,” she said, taking another deep breath. She hadn’t been playing her character for a long time, but everyone at the table still felt something in that moment. Maybe part of it was a sense of needing to feel something, or maybe the game had affected them more than they realized. Regardless, something needed to be said, and after talking to Koda a moment earlier, Jirou had a good idea of how she wanted Alision to go out. 

It’d put her on the spot a bit, requiring her to do something she had never done in front of other people before. She couldn’t deny feeling nervous at that prospect. But, then again, she had done a number of things that she had been extremely nervous about recently; taking the plunge in those cases had proven to quite possibly be one of the best decisions she had ever made. If she could confess her feelings not once, but twice, in the same day, then she could do this easily. With this newfound confidence, she engaged the first part of her plan.

“As Alis is lying on the ground, they...briefly look over at everyone in the party, starting with Rona and working around until they make eye contact with Whisper. They smile at him before humming a melody they shared with him, hoping that he can hear them even though he’s so far away.” Having said that, Jirou began to hum herself, a sweet, yet almost melancholy tune that nobody at the table could immediately recognize. When she was done, she took another deep breath before looking up at the group. “That’s it,” she said simply. “That’s the last thing they do before...well. Everything fades to black.”

The group sat there in silence for a moment, processing what had just happened, while Izuku continued trying to pull himself together. When he felt he had done that about as well as could be expected, he cleared his throat and attempted to get the ball rolling once more.

“Rona, you’re up,” he said, snapping Momo out of her own self-reflection.

“Hm? Oh, yes, of course,” she responded, taking a quick breath before adopting a look of pure determination. “Rona isn’t going to say anything; she’s simply going to hoist her longsword and charge at Corey, attacking with a ferocity none of you have seen from her thus far.” Momo rolled her d20 and looked down for a moment before turning to Izuku. “I’m going to add my bardic inspiration,” she announced, rolling an extra d6 and looking at that as well. “Well, I’m assuming that a 20 hits,” she said, half-jokingly, to which Izuku nodded, almost on autopilot, as Momo rolled several dice at once and grimaced at the result. “Hm, only 8 damage. But, on the bright side, he must make a Strength saving throw to avoid being knocked prone by my swing.”

Izuku nodded, rolling the dice and checking the stat block right in front of him. “Yup, that fails. He’s on the ground.”

“Excellent; I would like to use Action Surge,” Momo said, catching the attention of everyone else at the table, who were now watching her battle with great anticipation. “Rona attacks again, with advantage, if I recall correctly, and aims to hit him with a Menacing Attack. He must make a Wisdom saving throw.” Izuku rolled the save and looked down before nodding, confirming that the save failed, while Momo rolled her d20 twice, taking the higher result. “19, for a total of...11 damage,” she remarked, with evident satisfaction. 

Izuku glanced at the stat block, double checking to make sure that he knew the outcome. “He’s down,” he said, prompting a quiet murmur of relief to spread among the party members. The time for loud jubilation had passed, but they could still enjoy their victory to some extent.

“Rona knocks out Corey with the hilt of her longsword, hitting him perhaps a little harder than she should have...before her anger subsides.”

“Okay,” Izuku said, sighing. He could feel himself starting to crash, and it was getting harder and harder to focus amidst his own inner turmoil. At the same time, though, it was still a good half an hour before the session was supposed to end, and he didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s fun. He sat there muttering to himself, trying to figure out what to do before a voice snapped him out of it.

“Midori? Are you okay?”

He paused. He could do what he had been doing; smile and say that he was alright, and press on through the rest of the session for everyone else’s sake. However, at this point, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to sell it convincingly enough. So, he settled on the next best thing.

“I, uh, I am a bit tired. Today’s been a long day,” he admitted, prompting Mina to look around at the rest of the group, whose expressions spoke volumes.

“We can stop now if you want,” Mina suggested. “Wrap up all the loose ends and stuff next time.”

Izuku was about to shake his head before he considered the situation again, and came to the same conclusion as before. “I could probably get through everything real quick. Is that okay with everyone?” he asked, to which everyone rapidly agreed. He had expected that they’d be understanding, but it unfortunately didn’t make him feel much better. “Alright, well...Corey wakes up after a bit, unless somebody heals him. He’s, you know, very distraught over what happened, and he promises to make up for what he’s done. He says he knows of a way to bond Fernis to a new tree, located in the center of the woods. He, uh, he asks if you guys would like to tag along. Do you?” The group deliberated for a moment before signaling their agreement. “Okay, well, uh, the journey proceeds without incident, Corey completes the ritual, and before you know it, Fernis is back to his old self. There’s still a couple of moss monsters left roaming the woods, but the two fey assure you all that they can handle the situation from here. You’re, ah, you’re free to head back to the tavern, if you’d like.”

“A-actually, c-could we, ah, do one thing before we leave?” Koda asked, speaking up for the first time that session. Izuku noticed the nervous glance at Jirou, and her accompanying nod.

“Uh, yeah, sure. What, ah, what do you want to do?”

Koda gulped before preparing himself to speak. “W-Whisper’s gonna walk up to Fernis. He’s, uh, he’s gonna kinda gesture to the ground, ah, in front of his tree...then to Alis. He, uh, he doesn’t have the words.”

Izuku paused for a moment, processing the request. “‘Ah, yes, of course. Take, uh...take all the time you need.’”

Koda nodded rapidly before an idea occurred to him. “You, uh, y-you can go back upstairs, i-if you want, Midoriya. I-I can record it, uh, the rest of the session, I mean, and you can watch it, y-you know, later. When y-you’re ready.” 

From the brief nods around the table, everyone else seemed on board with Koda’s suggestion. Nevertheless, Izuku pondered it for a moment. His gut instinct was to brush it off, say he was fine, but...then Mina smiled at him gently, with a look that once again seemed to say so much. A look that told him that it was okay to be vulnerable...at least a little.

“Okay,” he said firmly. “I’ll, uh, I’ll leave you guys to it, then. You guys are all level 3 now, so, uh, let me know if you need any help leveling up. Jirou, uh...let me know who you wanna play as next. You know, when you, uh, figure it out. Okay?”

Jirou smiled, hoping that her expression conveyed that she wasn’t mad at him in the slightest. “I’ll text you. I’ve already got a couple ideas going; should be easy to settle on one.”

“Okay,” he said, not sure how else to respond. After an awkward silence, he added, “Well, uh, see you guys tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you, man.”

“Take care.”

With that, Izuku gathered up his things and headed for the elevator, the unwelcome thoughts returning in earnest, perhaps worse than they had been before. And at this point...he had no idea how to stop them.

* * *

 _Jirou: I’m not mad, you know_.

The text from Jirou arrived much sooner than Izuku had anticipated, only 12 minutes after the session would have ordinarily ended. Mulling over it for a moment, he responded as honestly as he could.

_Izuku: I know, it’s just, I can’t help but feel guilty about it anyway._

_Jirou: I get that, but like, I’m not mad, nobody else is mad, we’re all still down to keep playing. You’re totally, without a doubt, 100% good. Okay?_

Izuku took a deep breath and sat there silently for a moment, before typing out a response.

_Izuku: Okay._

_Izuku: Have you decided who you’ll be playing as next?_

_Jirou: Yeah, I’m thinking I might go for an Arcana Domain cleric. Variant Human this time, with that one feat, War Caster? Figured Arcana lets me do some wizardy things while also being able to heal everybody, you know?_

_Izuku: Makes sense. Any details on their backstory?_

_Jirou: Thinking I’d call her Yoko. Basically, she went to like a wizard school or whatever, then started getting visions from a goddess of prophecy, so she dropped out and is getting magic from her so that she can prevent some stuff from going down. Haven’t really figured out much beyond that._

_Izuku: Hm...okay. I should be able to work with that._

_Izuku: You need help with anything?_

_Jirou: Nah, I’m good._

_Jirou: Well, there is one other thing I was thinking about, but we can talk about that tomorrow._

_Izuku: Hm. Alright._

_Jirou: Actually, wait, another thing: Koda sent me the video from the rest of the session. Here._

_Jirou posted a link._

_Izuku: Thanks. I’ll be sure to take a look at it soon._

_Jirou: Cool. See you later, dude. And take care of yourself, yeah? A lot of people really care about you._

Izuku couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

_Izuku: So I’ve been told._

_Jirou: Tch. Yeah, cuz it’s a freakin fact. Don’t go making us repeat ourselves, now._

_Izuku: Night, Jirou._

_Jirou: Night._

With the conversation over, Izuku looked up at the ceiling of his dorm room, appreciating the relative silence he could enjoy every night now that Mineta wasn’t right next door. He debated whether or not to watch the video for a good couple of minutes. He wasn’t entirely sure what persuaded him to do it in the end. All he could determine was that it seemed like something he had to do. If nothing else, it probably wouldn’t make the stuff he was dealing with that much worse. He tapped onto the video and let it play as soon as he had plugged in his headphones.

_The group sat around the table in silence for a moment, not sure how to start. Eventually, Momo spoke up._

_“‘I can set up a nice coffin for them. I’ve, uh...got some experience there.’” There was a softer edge to Rona’s typical harsh voice that the others noticed pretty quickly._

_“‘Okay,’” Mina remarked, her Joy voice having lost some of its energy._

_“W-Whisper will, uh, make a big enough hole with Mold Earth, t-then f-fill it up again as soon as the coffin is placed inside.”_

_The group nodded, assuming that the tasks were completed after a while. Surprisingly enough, Toru spoke up next._

_“‘Anyone got anything they’d like to say? I gotta be honest, I’m kinda drawing a blank myself.’”_

_The group was quiet for a bit before Mina spoke up. “‘I can go. Uh, it’s kinda hard to think of anything, to be totally honest. I...I haven’t really experienced anything like this before. I guess I’ve been pretty lucky there. But, uh, the one thing that does come to mind is...I would’ve liked to have the chance to get to know them better.’”_

_The group was quiet for a brief period once more, before Kaminari spoke up next._

_“Rai just kinda nods along. She’d said pretty much everything he wanted to.”_

_“Rona nods along as well. There was perhaps more that she could have said, but...she doesn’t quite have the strength tonight. ...Perhaps she never will.”_

_“Gotcha. ‘Anyone else?’ Scratch kinda looks around at everybody else.”_

_At this point, Koda spoke up from behind the camera._

_“W-Whisper is gonna open up his mouth to speak. When he does, w-well...y-you’ll see.”_

_As if on cue, Jirou cleared her throat._

_“‘I’d like to share with you a song a dear friend taught to me,’” Jirou said, in Alision’s voice, which left the rest of the group a little confused, yet filled with a sense of anticipation as Jirou took a couple of deep breaths, clearly nervous._

It clicked in Izuku’s brain based on something he had read that last week. Kenku were apparently able to mimic voices, which is what they used in order to speak normally. And seeing as Whisper was taught Common by Alision, then…

“Every word,” Izuku muttered. “Every word he says for a while...it’s gonna be in their voice.”

As he said this, Jirou seemed to have gotten her act together, and what Izuku heard next left him speechless.

_Jirou began to sing._

_“I knew you once...and it was nice. I knew your brain, and your heart, all your insides.”_

_The group watched wordlessly, utterly amazed themselves as she continued, keeping her eyes closed._

_“Oh, I could tell...just with a look...what you were thinking...that's all it took.”_

_Momo’s wobbly grin seemed to indicate that she was on the verge of tears, whether from sadness or happiness, nobody was certain._

_“You shared your secrets...and I shared mine. Silence was comfy, without having to try.”_

_Mina couldn’t help but smile as she listened to Jirou sing, while the others on camera followed suit._

_“We swapped our smiles...gifted advice. Yes, I knew you once...and it was nice.”_

_As Jirou finished, the party rushed to compliment her unexpected performance, Momo being the first to do so as she wrapped her up in a hug._

_“Oh, that was_ lovely _, Kyoka!”_

_“Yeah! That was so cool!”_

_“I didn’t know you could sing so well!”_

_Kaminari chuckled. “Seriously! Cute, crazy talented, a total badass,_ and _a rockin singing voice? My girlfriend’s freaking awesome!”_

_Jirou flushed bright red in response to all the praise._

_“It, uh, it really isn’t all that special-”_

_“Disagree!” Mina countered, with a bright smile on her face._

_“It was very much that special, extremely special, the most special,” Momo said, hugging her girlfriend tighter and seeming to have briefly lost her usual mannerisms._

_“You should give yourself more credit, Jirou, that was beautiful,” Toru added._

Izuku smiled. On that, he was in total agreement.

_Jirou chuckled. “Well, uh, thanks, you know. I’m glad you liked it. I guess the bright side of all this is that, you know, I wouldn’t have had the idea otherwise. It just seemed...fitting, I guess.” She paused for a moment before looking directly at the camera. “I’m not mad at you, by the way. You probably don’t believe me, but I mean it, honest. Yeah, it kinda sucks that Alision died so soon, but hey, stuff happens sometimes. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop playing or anything, so don’t you panic about any of that.”_

_“Yeah, man, this has been really fun so far!” Kaminari chimed in. “Hanging out with some of my favorite people, getting to play pretend for a bit, it’s a good time!”_

_“Indeed! I feel inspired to flesh out Rona’s story now more than ever! This session has given me ideas I might never have considered.”_

_“And I get to sneak around and steal things!” Toru cried out happily. “Eventually, anyway,” she added, a little sheepishly. “Not many opportunities for that so far, but I’m optimistic!”_

_Mina couldn’t help but laugh in response to Toru’s antics, before looking at the camera and smiling with that same look from before._

_“We’re all having a lot of fun playing with you, Midori,” she said, in a soft, encouraging tone. “We know you’ve got a lot going on right now, and if you wanna take a break, we’re totally cool with that. You don’t need to add anything onto your plate for our sake. Just know that, whenever you’re comfortable playing again, whether that’s next week, or next month, or even longer...I’ll be there, okay?” Mina blinked, beginning to blush lilac as she realized her mistake. “We’ll! We’ll be there! All of us, because we all lo-_ like _you! Very much!” Mina hid her face in her hands as the rest of the party struggled to hide their amusement. Just when Jirou had finally begun to laugh heartily, Koda made the wise choice of ending the recording._

Izuku stared at the last frame of the video for a moment. Those last few seconds...Izuku might have still had some reservations, but even his own self-doubt had limits. It was getting harder for that part of his brain to convince him that she wasn’t interested, that any evidence to the contrary was an elaborate misunderstanding on his part, particularly given what Ochaco had told him and his talk with Mina at the party. Still...it was difficult for him to believe it to be true, even when not believing what he could see unambiguously at this point seemed equally foolish.

He sighed, his exhaustion evident. This was something he could figure out later, when he wasn’t all over the place, stuck waiting for a chance to do something, anything, while also left grappling with information he was still struggling to process. For now, he reasoned, it was time to sleep, and he definitely needed sleep. As he completed his nightly routine and settled into bed, there was one thing that he was happy to note, something that he had noticed from the moment he stopped watching the video:

The horrible thoughts had subsided once again.

* * *

Hoo boy, this one took a while.

Beyond just, you know, the general state of the world, college, all that, I don't really have an excuse for why this took so long. I just...didn't have the energy to write the next chapter, or to write much of anything, really. That's kinda been a problem this year. Still, in any event, it's here now, and I've got a decent idea of what I want to do with the next couple chapters. No idea when I'll get to them, though.

By the way, the song Jirou sings is a song called "I Knew You Once" by Dodie Clark! You can find it on Youtube, it's really lovely!

In any event, it's super late at the time that I'm writing this, and I need to take care of some things. Hope you all enjoy this, stay safe, wear a mask, and take care.


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